


Goodbye Hero

by etrix



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Aerith Gainsborough, BAMF Cloud Strife, BAMF Tifa Lockhart, BAMF Zack Fair, Bisexual Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Discussions of sex, Discussions of sexuality, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Monster Hunters, Novel, POV Alternating, Pairings in Flux, Wordcount: Over 100.000, Work In Progress, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife Friendship, Zack Fair Lives, Zack Fair Needs a Hug, Zack Fair has PTSD, Zack Fair is the perfect boyfriend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 115,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etrix/pseuds/etrix
Summary: Cloud made it to Midgar. He even joined Shinra’s army, but there he stopped. He didn’t kill Sephiroth, and Hojo never knew he existed. He did his tour and got out.He settled into life under the plate, earning gil through odd jobs and scrounging the hills around Midgar for anything he could sell – mostly scales and claws from the monsters that attacked him.On this particular day, it wasn't a monster he found, but a shot-to-hell SOLDIER who wasn’t quite dead.A story of building a new life, gaining new friends, and a past that isn't quite done.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough & Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair & Cloud Strife, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Comments: 282
Kudos: 179





	1. Luck Warks In

**Author's Note:**

> It's hardly surprising that playing the remake inspired me to write another Final Fantasy 7 fix-it, but it's been a long time since I watched the movie or played any of the other games. In other words, be prepared for a lot of deviation from canon, some accidental, some deliberate.
> 
> One deliberate change is their ages. At the start of this story (the end of Crisis Core) Zack is 26, Aerith – 24, Cloud – 23. I completely believe Shinra would create child soldiers (which Cloud and Zack would've been) but I wanted everyone to be older. 
> 
> **One more thing** : It shouldn't need to be said, but please don't post copies of my story on Goodreads, or anywhere else. If you think someone would enjoy it, send them to me here or at fanfiction.net.
> 
> If you want to check out the playlist I'm listening to as I write, it's [on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RtGrPPPgyLUvNnhYCEk8P?si=QB7lT9VCSPOeQDZFZ5Q40g).

Cloud waited for the army to leave before heading to the cliff edge.

He'd been on his way back from the Chocobo Farm (one great yellow dropped off for breeding, one truss of kurie greens picked up for delivery), when he'd heard the explosions and recognized them as mortar fire and grenades. Deza, his green chocobo, had perked up, and that had made Wex, the yellow pack chocobo, jump and sidle.

Once he had the idiot yellow settled, Cloud thought about the battle he could hear.

His first thought was that it was Avalanche or some other quasi-army attacking Midgar – something that happened fairly often – but as far as Cloud knew, the core of Avalanche had been defeated a couple years ago at Corel. And Wutai rebels didn't do army attacks but precision hits and sabotage, so what else would bring Shinra's army out in force this close to Midgar?

A monster large or dangerous enough to threaten the city, that's what.

Something like a dragon or a mutated Marlboro, or maybe even a zolom that had drifted in from the plains.

That thought led him to slow his green chocobo's canter to a soft trot.

If it _was_ a big monster, and Shinra didn't blow it up completely, the body could take hours to dissolve. That meant there might be scales or teeth or other things Cloud could salvage and sell for big gil in Midgar.

It was a matter of timing – arrive too early and get arrested just for being there. Arrive too late, and there would be nothing left worth money.

When he was close enough to hear gunfire – lots of gunfire – between the mortar and the grenades, Cloud slowed from a trot to a walk.

What the hells were they fighting that it was taking them so long?

Whatever it was, given the fire power it was absorbing, Cloud was more than happy to let the army take care of it. He'd been joking when he'd thought dragon or zolom, but damn! It could actually _be_ one of those things.

Over the ridges of rock, Cloud could see the black smoke from weapons mingling with the brownish dust of the mesa. There was a lot of it, and there wasn't enough of a breeze to blow it very far. That was good. He'd be harder to spot through the smoke. He could get a little closer to the fight.

When Cloud could hear the shouts of the army, distorted by the ridgelines but distinct, he pulled off the track. Any closer and he'd be in the middle of the fight.

He manoeuvred behind one of the higher crests and dismounted. A stroke down Deza's beak told the bird to keep quiet. The green shook his feathers but didn't make a sound otherwise. The yellow pack chocobo opened its beak to warble. Deza hissed softly and the yellow stayed quiet. Cloud murmured praise, and then he waited.

And waited.

The distinctive green motes of dissolving bodies sparkled through the smoke, trailing up into the sky, but the gunfire and shouting continued so Shinra hadn't killed the creature yet. That meant the dead bodies belonged to the infantry men and women. As usual, Shinra was putting them up against something that seriously outclassed them. Letting them die rather than admitting defeat.

Cloud was so glad he'd gotten out...

While he waited, sparing a sympathetic thought for all the dying, Cloud tried to figure out what they were up against. It wasn't a zolom (unfortunately) because zoloms were tall, taller than any of the rock formations on the top of the cliffs. Cloud would've been able to see its scaley head. Same with a behemoth. A dragon would've flown, so sadly, that was out as well.

It could be a giant mutated Marlboro. He'd heard people in Kalm talking about some new breed travellers had run into.

It could also be one of Shinra's mechanical weapons on a rampage and not responding to shut down commands. If that was the case, then Cloud was wasting his time waiting. Shinra would gather up all the parts and haul it back to Weapons Development for analysis.

Cloud looked up. It was still early afternoon. There were only a few clouds, so rain was unlikely. Technically, no one should be expecting him until tomorrow, because that's when his delivery was due. He could afford to wait a while longer.

The green motes rising into the air thinned, but they didn't stop. The shadows cast by the rock crest stretched as the sun moved in the sky.

Cloud decided the monster had to be an escaped experiment rather than anything natural. Whatever they were fighting was stronger than normal to have made it this far and lasted this long. He'd been a Shinra trooper for just over a year, and they'd dealt with two break outs from the Science Department.

It was during one of those breakouts that Cloud figured his fate at Shinra had been sealed. He'd been spit on by one once. A disgusting glowing green goo that had been mostly mako. He'd survived, and the Science department had wondered why…

Cloud shook himself out of the past. He couldn't afford to wait much longer – even with his skill, it wasn't safe to be in the open when night fell. And if it was an escaped experiment, the army would probably have orders to gather up the body and take it back to Midgar when they left, so there'd be nothing to salvage anyway.

He'd finally talked himself into leaving, so of course, the battle stopped. Mortar fire slowed, gunfire stopped, and the voices quieted. Cloud could hear the moans of the wounded. A couple final gun shots – probably the coup de grâce - then all sounds were drowned out by the engines of many, many large vehicles.

Finally, they were leaving.

Cloud waited until the engines sounded like dim background noise.

It started to rain.

Swallowing a sigh, Cloud led the chocobos out onto the road.

Cloud jumped back up on his chocobo and trotted them to where he knew the fight had to have taken place. He traveled this trail a lot, and there was only one place along this stretch where there was a big enough clearing.

As he drew closer, the copper smell of fresh blood was heavy in the air. It was layered over the dirt and rain. It surrounded him and brought back memories, unwelcome ones, of his own time in Shinra. Neither of the chocobos liked it, making soft, unhappy kwehs, but he spoke softly to them, reassuring and calm. The battle was over. They had nothing to fear.

Around one final outcropping, and Cloud finally saw the damage

He was going to have to relearn the trail's landmarks.

Where there had once been a layered stone ridge, solid and steep, there were now only a few random boulders sticking up like teeth. Deep holes pitted the ground where mortars had landed, and there wasn't any piece of dirt that didn't have blood or bullet casings on it for thirty metres in any direction.

Cloud looked, but there wasn't any monster remains. There was just a single body.

One man. Lying unmoving in the middle of all the destruction.

Cloud ground-tied Deza at the edge of the killing field and carefully moved forward. The body was dressed in black fatigues that looked kind of like the uniform Cloud used to wear. It supported Cloud's escaped experiment theory. But…

He'd expected mutations.

Admittedly, Cloud hadn't seen many of Shinra's experiments, but the ones he had helped hunt down had always been twisted in some way. Not this time, though. The guy just looked… normal.

Aside from having as many bullet holes in his body as in his ma's crocheted doilies, that was. Still… normal..

And then the body moved.

No. Not moved – _breathed_.

"Goat balls," Cloud muttered as he put it together. The long fight, the black uniform, and someone who should've been dead but wasn't. The guy was SOLDIER First Class. and Shinra had tried to kill him.

Maybe the SOLDIER had gone crazy, like Sephiroth…

The body on the ground shuddered a painful breath. "Wings… "

Cloud made up his mind. He had no love of Shinra, not anymore, so anything they wanted to kill he'd help live until common sense said otherwise.

He only had low-level materia on him – the road between Healin and Midgar was pretty settled and most monsters were low-level themselves. It was a great place to work with new materia, build up its strength. Which was why he only had a basic Healing materia on him, when he needed the mastered healing he'd sold to Shears just last week.

Shiva! The guy'd been fighting for _hours_.

Cloud cursed his own greed, but then he forgave himself, because how could he have predicted he'd have to heal a guy _who'd_ _fought_ _a whole army_?

He'd use what he had and hope it was enough. He tried to push the materia to Cura, but it was still too new. So he cast Cure twice. Too fast. He needed a breather.

"Heya." He lifted the guy's eyelids to check pupil response and revealed bright, glowing blue irises. Confirmation that this guy was, or had been, SOLDIER. No wonder an army hadn't quite killed him.

"You with me?"

Nothing.

Cloud took a breath, letting his panic go, and tried for Cura again, willing the materia to heal more strongly than it had the pathways for. It seemed to work, because the power passed through Cloud smoother, quicker than the times before.

It was always strange using materia, like a tingle running from his feet to his brain and out his hands. The green glow circled the injured man then dove in. Cloud took another breath, gathering his will, and cast it again. The blood stopped pouring out at least. And maybe the face had lost some of its sickly white tone? A closer look…

This close the SOLDIER looked a little familiar, but Cloud shoved the thought away. More important things to worry about. Like the amount of blood still leaking out of him.

Cloud could cast Cura a couple more times before it became a strain, but maybe he should make sure the guy wasn't going to die on him anyways before he wasted the MP. He gave the guy's cheek a light slap. "Hey."

Nothing.

"Hell-lloo," Cloud sing‑songed in the most annoying tone he could manage.

Surprisingly, it worked.

The guy opened his eyes. "Mom?"

"Not even close," Cloud replied. "Gonna cast Cura a couple more times. Should heal you enough to be moved. Dunno how you pissed Shinra off, but don't wanna wait up here and find out it's contagious."

Cloud concentrated on the materia in his bracer. This time, when the green energy dropped into the SOLDIER, several bullets popped out, flying up a couple centimetres before falling to the ground.

"Okay," Cloud muttered fascinated. "Never seen that happen before."

He forced his eyes away from watching the guy's shredded skin seal itself back together and looked at the guy's face instead. It was a handsome face under the blood. Though it was maybe too thin, and there were stress lines around the eyes, and a long, cross-shaped scar on the left cheek.

"…flowers?" the guy muttered.

Cloud couldn't help his snort. Wild plant life around Midgar was rare, and if there'd been any flowers on the ridge, they'd been blown to Ifrit's hell.

He took out his water bag. He knew SOLDIERs healed fast but replacing all that lost blood would take a lot of liquid. Cloud lifted the guy's head and carefully tipped water into his mouth. He swallowed it with his eyes closed.

"Stay awake for me, yah?"

"But, 'Geal, 'm tired." His voice was weak, but that was still a whine.

"Rest, but don't sleep. Okay?"

"'kay."

It was enough.

Cloud stood up to call the chocobos over – no way he could carry the SOLDIER to them – and saw the sword. Considering it was a huge slice of metal faintly shining despite the overcast sky, it was kinda embarrassing that he hadn't noticed it before.

On the other hand, he _had_ been focused on the mostly-dead guy and how to save his life, so Cloud forgave himself.

Closer to the weapon, Cloud recognized it.

When he'd been young and stupid, and willing to believe everything was better in Shinra, Cloud had read the magazines, every article he could find on the elite SOLDIERs of Shinra. He'd collected pictures of the three original Firsts: Sephiroth with his long silver hair; Genesis in red leather; and the last one all in black. The only one who didn't look like they'd used an image consultant.

In all the pictures, Commander Angeal Hewley had worn a standard uniform and kept his hair at a moderate length. And he'd carried a huge buster sword with geometric fullers carved into, and two materia slots.

This was that sword.

Commander Hewley had had an apprentice – the last First ever created. One who'd been beginning to get a following to match those of the original three First, when he'd been killed "in a reactor accident" in Nibelheim.

The guy on the ground had called out "Geal", but Cloud bet he'd meant _An_ geal. Which meant the mostly-dead guy was SOLDIER First Zack Fair.

Holy Odin's mighty sword!

Cloud took another look at Fair. The guy's body was shredded from toe to top. There was even a messy hole on the side of his head. They had definitely meant for him to die.

The bullets had also shredded everything he was wearing, except the boots. Shirt, pants – rags. The leather armour and harness rig would never hold a sword ever again. Which meant Cloud would have to carry the buster down the cliffs some other way.

Cloud wasn't weak – far from it – but he wasn't SOLDIER either and that looked like 150 kilos of metal. He considered leaving it behind, but if he'd inherited it from his mentor, Fair would want it when he woke up.

There was room on Wex, Cloud decided. The yellow was carrying barely half what he was capable of.

He gave a soft whistle and called Deza to him. The yellow followed meekly behind, his herd instinct making him stay close to the other, more dominant, chocobo. When they were close enough, and Cloud had them settled as much as possible, Cloud looked down at the sword lying in a pool of red-tinged water.

Right, he thought to himself. Time to put all of Jules' training to work.

Cloud bent at the knees, just like he would if he were doing weights in the gym. Then he braced… and lifted.

And nearly tumbled over onto his ass.

The sword wasn't nearly as heavy as he'd thought. More like 50 kilos than 150, which was still heavy but not ridiculous. Cloud gave it a slow swing. It was surprisingly well-balanced, considering. But three swings later and he decided only a SOLDIER would be able to fight with it. Only a SOLDIER had the strength and stamina needed to wield the thing for more than a minute, let alone the length of a full-out battle.

"Looks okay," he told the injured SOLDIER, who was just laying there breathing, but no longer bleeding. "Couple bullet nicks. Nothing a good polish won't fix."

He threaded the wide blade behind the ropes keeping the canvas tight to Sam's order of kurie greens. Despite the rain, he thought the ropes were tight enough that the blade wouldn't slip onto the ground as they travelled.

When he thought he had the weapon balanced okay, considering, Cloud grabbed some extra rope and wrapped the sword a little more securely. If the sword slipped it could break the preservation spells on the cargo, and if there was any spoilage, Sam would deduct money from his payment. Cloud had plans for that money.

Once he had it tied six ways to someday, Cloud pulled on the buster, testing his knots. They held.

He did a final check on Wex, pulling the chocobo's head down, looking for signs of distress at the extra weight or the slightly unbalanced load.

To Cloud's relief, the yellow just shook the water out of his feathers, and then proceeded to groom Cloud's hair.

"You're fine," he murmured, giving the sturdy idiot a final pat.

Finally, he turned to SOLDIER Zack Fair. "You, on the other hand…" The rain had expanded the red-tainted puddle around him.

Cloud felt steady enough to cast another Cura, hoping it would give Fair some mobility. However, the green energy flowed into Fair's wounds, and he didn't jump up or otherwise show himself capable of climbing onto Deza's back.

"Lovely," Cloud murmured.

Unlike the sword, he didn't think the SOLDIER would miraculously weigh half of what he looked like – especially not with the water soaking into his clothes.

Cloud looked at the ruined belly armour. He'd worn one as an infantryman and it hadn't been light.

"Not doing you any good anymore," Cloud murmured.

Harnesses were meant to be easy to get on and off, so that there was little time between the call for action and being ready to fight. However, they weren't designed to survive being hit by a million and one bullets. Cloud finally gave up on the buckles and just cut the damn thing off. A shower of bullets fell through the holes in the First's uniform.

Goat's balls! All of those had been _in_ Fair not that long ago. A battalion's worth of bullets and then some.

It made Cloud wonder why Shinra had sent the army after Fair. Why they'd been willing to lose a thousand troopers to kill their own SOLDIER.

It wasn't that Cloud didn't believe that Shinra wouldn't kill one of their own – he absolutely did. And it wasn't the fact that they had sent an army against a SOLDIER – although Turks would've made more sense. But why this particular one? What had the guy done aside from not be dead?

Well, he wouldn't find out until Fair recovered. Even then, the guy might not want to talk about it.

Cloud sat Fair up and then kind of folded the guy over his shoulder. Lifting with his legs (thanking Jules again for all the weight training), Cloud didn't stagger hardly at all. More of the bullets dripped out of the SOLDIER's ruined uniform.

Cloud signaled Deza to crouch, and then carefully manoeuvred the First into a slow fall over the saddle. Another piece of rope secured the guy so he wouldn't fall off (hopefully). It wasn't ideal considering all the guy's injuries, but they were going to be going down a steep track. Just like the blade, it would be bad for everyone if the SOLDIER slid off halfway down.

Cloud did a final visual of the area, making sure he wasn't missing anything important. Just as he turned his head, he saw a glow on the far side of the battlefield where the rock hadn't been blown flat. He strode over to it, hopeful but ready to be disappointed.

He wasn't disappointed.

It was a tiny new orb of blue materia.

It happened sometimes – rarely, and only when a very, very large creature died. Some of the energy got trapped here or something, and it would form into balls of raw materia. It was one of the things Cloud had hoped for back when he thought Shinra was fighting a monster.

Cloud supposed the energy released in the deaths of a thousand infantry probably matched that of a zolom.

He rolled it in his bare left hand. It was so new Cloud couldn't tell what it was. He thought it might be HP or MP Absorption. Not truly rare, but he'd found it, so anything he could sell it for would be profit. Though, maybe it belonged to the SOLDIER. After all, it was the attempt to kill him that caused it to form….

Question for later, he decided, and put the new materia in his bracer. A couple small battles and he'd know what it was. Maybe it would even level up a little.

He walked back to the chocobos and gathered Deza's reins. "Time to go," Cloud said. "Before Shinra sends the Turks to clean up."

They'd have to use the main road for a bit which was a risk, but it was the only way to access the shortcut to the lower level. The rain kept up as he jogged the chocobos up the trail. It meant the road stayed empty, and no helicopters flew overhead, but Cloud was still relieved when he reached the turn-off. The only marker for it was a heart and arrow painted on the rocks.

The path down started on jut of rock that sloped down nearly twenty degrees. Cloud tested the surface. It was a little slick from the rain, but it was more stone than mud. Deza would have no problems with it of course, but they'd have to keep it slow for Wex. The yellow was used to flatter surfaces.

He eased the birds onto the path, keeping an eye on the yellow. Wex looked unhappy, but not like he was going to panic. Good.

A sound came from the body slung over Deza's saddle, and Cloud found himself telling the unconscious SOLDIER about the path they were taking. There wasn't any scientific proof that unconscious people heard what was said to them, but Cloud thought they did – thought _he_ had.

Before Shinra raised Midgar up on massive plates, he said, the valley had been home to several small towns. Cloud had talked to older residents could still remember when there had been farms and ranches and open fields. The goat-track they were on was a remnant of that. Centuries of goatherds rotating their livestock from the valley floor to the cliff top had worn a decent sized path on the side of it. Bridges had been built over a couple deep crevices, and there'd even been lights at some point long ago.

The SOLDIER gave short gasp. Probably from a bump, and not as a response to Cloud's story.

Cloud explained that the track wasn't as wide as it had been before Shinra, and fewer people used it because automobiles were so common now, but it was still maintained. Mostly by the smugglers going in and out of Midgar.

Cloud assured the guy that they were unlikely to run into any smugglers at this time of day and in this kind of weather, but that the general rule was to ignore each other when on the track. "You don't see them; they don't see you," Cloud explained.

Cloud cast another healing spell. He tried for Cura but the focus just wasn't in him. He hadn't brought any ether potions. Usually his MP recovery was pretty good, but he'd cast a lot of spells in a short time. They'd both have to have patience.

When they crossed the first bridge, Cloud dropped the bullet-shredded harness. Not even the Turks would be able to find it in the deep crevice, and with the rain washing their presence from the battlefield, it would be as if the SOLDIER's body had dissolved into the lifestream. Just as it should've.

At the second bridge, Cloud dropped the guy's PHS. Only a fool believed Shinra didn't put tracking chips in them. "Just need new clothes and sunglasses, and you can hide from Shinra easy."

It was an exaggeration. There were too many Shinra people under the plate – employees who commuted to work every day and spies paid by one or other of Shinra's departments. But that was a problem for another day.

As they dropped down into Midgar's valley, the rain stopped reaching them. The path went from wet and a bit slick, to dry and a little slippery. Deza ruffled his feathers to get rid of the water, and Fair groaned at the movement.

"Nearly at the bottom," Cloud told him.

A couple hedgehog pies were squatting on the path. It was too narrow to get by them, and of course they attacked. Elsewhere on the continent, creatures this small would run away from larger animals, but not next to Midgar. Cloud dropped Deza's rein, stopping the bird in place, and drew his sword.

Iron Blade was much smaller that the SOLDIER's buster, but it was enough for Cloud. It had been made special for him. Paid for with his first winnings from a coliseum fight. He skewered one and knocked another off the path to the valley below. He had to dodge the last one, after realizing that he didn't have enough MP for even a tiny Fire spell, but soon enough all three of the pests were taken care off.

The violence didn't make Wex happy, but at least he didn't bolt like he'd done the first time a monster had jumped out at them. It had taken them four days to get to the Chocobo Farm. It would take them five days to get back. By the time Wex was returned to Sam's stable, he'd be a veteran. Nothing on the roads between the sectors would phase him.

Maybe Cloud could negotiate a training bonus from Sam…. He snorted. There wasn't a chance of it.

It took the rest of the afternoon to reach the bottom, the sun already low beneath the plate. No way they'd reach the outskirts before it was full dark.

It was one thing to encounter smugglers on the cliff during the day; Cloud didn't want to meet up with them at night. Also, there were too many mutated creatures surrounding Midgar, both created by and attracted to the mako in the reactors. They'd have to camp at the bottom and hope the monsters stuck closer to the sectors.

As soon as the path leveled out at the bottom, he jogged around the base of the cliffs for about half an hour, until he reached a particular stone. Cloud had found it on one of his scavenger hunts and marked it as a good emergency shelter. The rock had sheared off from the cliff above in one long, flat slab. It hadn't shattered on impact. Instead, it leaned against the cliff face at an angle, leaving a decent sized gap under it.

Cloud ground-tied Deza and went to clean any creatures out of the hole. Thankfully, it smelled of dirt and old cobwebs and nothing more.

"Gonna set up camp before I take you down," he told the SOLDIER. "That way you won't havta lie on the ground."

Deza warked a demand.

"Yah. Feed you too," he replied with a smile.

He took the saddle off Deza, but poor Wex had to keep his cargo on. Cloud could probably get it off, but he wouldn't be able to get it back on in the morning. Wex groomed his hair, happy to be part of Cloud's herd, and Cloud sighed.

"Next time, I'll tell 'em to wrap the greens in smaller bundles." He'd said the same thing to the yellow every night since leaving the farm. He hadn't paid attention as they'd loaded the poor thing. As an apology, Cloud gave Wex some of the gysahl greens he'd bought for Deza.

And then he had to give some to Deza, of course, to be fair.

He hadn't even made it back to Midgar, and he was halfway through what he'd ordered for his own use.

On the other hand, there were always deliveries to Chocobo Farm. He could get more of the fancy greens then.

Lots of practice meant it didn't take long for Cloud to have the camp set up. He started a small fire for cooking and warmth, and laid out the bedroll. Then he unloaded the First, putting him near the fire in the hopes the guy would dry out more.

Cloud started some canned stew heating and took out a towel to soak the water from his clothes. It was a familiar routine, and even the noise of distant monsters emerging in to the night didn't stop his enjoyment.

On the bedroll, Fair was frowning and twitching. If he was dreaming it didn't look like happy. He backed up and gave Fair a poke with Iron Blade's sheath. "Heya. Wake up."

Nothing.

"Hell-llooo," Cloud tried. It had worked before, so why not.

It worked again. Glowing blue eyes popped open. "Don't!"

Cloud raised empty hands. "Not gonna do anything," he said gently. "Just looked like a bad dream."

"Dream…" The guy blinked. "Hold on… to your dreams."

As the guy's eyelids drooped, Cloud cleared his throat. Those blue eyes popped open again. "Think you can drink a potion?" There was no verbal response, but Fair didn't close his eyes again so that was good enough.

Cloud pulled out his emergency hi-potion. He approached slowly. Blue eyes watched his progress without fear. Cloud angled the SOLDIER up a little, and then he poured the expensive potion in bit by bit until it was all gone.

The guy licked his lips.

He really was good looking.

It was an instinctive thought. One that Cloud didn't even notice until he realized he was staring at the guy's lips.

When Cloud had become an infantryman in the regular army, he'd heard the rumour that SOLDIERs were all having sex with each other. Some of his squad mates had been upset at the idea, but it had actually increased Cloud's desire to get into SOLDIER.

There hadn't been nice words for homosexuality in Nibelheim. There hadn't even been clinical words. It was like being a homosexual just didn't happen in the mountains. It wasn't until Cloud reached Costa del Sol that he learned there were normal words to describe a man who was attracted to other men, and that it was possible to be equally attracted to both sexes. Cloud's whole body had gone "oh!" and he'd looked at the swim-suited vacationers a little differently.

So, no. The idea of SOLDIERs being queer hadn't stopped Cloud from wanting in.

When Fair was better, when he was safe, if he was interested…

Cloud capped the empty and put it back in his saddlebag, watched the whole time by those bright mako-eyes. "There's a deposit on the bottle," he explained. "No need for it to go to waste."

"Who are you?" The guy's voice was surprisingly light, but ragged, as if from screaming.

"Name's Cloud Strife."

He gave the canned stew a stir. It was nearly ready. He'd added some scrounged roots to it for added flavour and substance. Didn't taste bad.

"Why… Why?"

"Why'm I doing this?" Cloud looked at him for confirmation of the question. The guy gave a slight nod.

Cloud tapped his spoon on the side of the pot and thought. He could try to make himself sound noble, heroic. Or he could be honest, and hope that the guy would be the same in return.

"Wasn't expecting you when I walked onto that battlefield." He looked at the SOLDIER who watched him unblinking. "Waited for the army to leave, thinking they'd been fighting a creature whose parts I could harvest and sell."

"Could still do that," Fair said softly. Cloud snorted. He probably _could_ sell the body of a SOLDIER First to a couple alchemists he knew under the plate, or even back to Shinra.

"You were alive though, yah? Not by much, maybe, but breathing," he said. "May not be a hero, but I refuse to be a villain. Think you can sit up to eat?"

Fair blinked. He put one hand down and pushed. The angle of his torso increased, but he didn't get any further off the ground.

"Hey, woah! Hada lotta bullets in you not that long ago. Don't want those holes to open again." Cloud tucked an arm around the guy. "On three. One… Two… " It was enough to let the SOLDIER sit upright.

"Ow."

Cloud kept his hand out until he was sure the guy wouldn't fall over. "Been mostly-dead all day."

The guy frowned. "I know that line."

"It's a classic." Cloud smiled. "Don't worry about it now. Concentrate on not spilling food over my stuff."

The guy looked down. He seemed surprised to find himself on a bed roll.

Not trusting Fair's control, Cloud took a small spoonful of the doctored stew, blew on it a little, then held it up to be eaten.

Again, the guy frowned, but he obediently opened his mouth. He chewed slowly, almost as if he didn't remember how. Cloud took a spoonful for himself.

It was only partially awful, but it was filling and hot, and the evening temperature was already cool dropping to cold.

"Dunno why the wastes around Midgar are always colder than under the plate, or even topside. Midgar people wear shorts day or night, winter or summer," Cloud said as he fed the guy another bite. "Out here, temperature drops to only slightly warmer than Shiva's heart. Won't be good for you."

"No clouds."

Cloud turned to the SOLDIER. "What?"

The guy tipped his chin upwards. "Clouds retain heat. No clouds, no heat."

Cloud leaned out of the hole. He lifted his hand to block the lights of Midgar. He could see the brighter stars and the moon. There were no clouds. "Huh."

The guy shook his head and nearly tipped over. Cloud shot out a hand to catch him. Fair was a big guy, heavy with muscle, and it took just about everything Cloud had to keep him from falling over.

"Woah, head spins," Fair muttered.

"Yah, well. Again, mostly dead all day." Cloud braced the guy until he was steady then he went back to divvying up the stew spoonful by spoonful.

"I'm Zack," the guy said around another mouthful.

Cloud looked at him. "Niceta meet ya, Zack."

"You're Cloud."

Cloud nodded.

"Like in the sky, but you're not in the sky."

Cloud smiled softly. "No. Prefer having my feet on the ground these days. Less chance of crashing."

"If I had wings, I could fly." The words were sad, lonely, yearning.

Shinra would just shoot you out of the sky, Cloud thought. And then he thought that maybe they'd already tried.

"C'mon. One more bite then we're done." He coaxed the SOLDIER into taking the last of the stew. "Do you need to pee or anything?" he asked, careful to keep his tone matter of fact.

Zack tipped his head. "Nah. 'm good."

Thank Ramuh, Cloud thought. He'd helped others go to the bathroom before, but those had been lovers or squad mates, not some recently met super soldier who'd fought an army and seemed to be a little out of it.

"Need help lying back down?"

Blue eyes blinked at him. The glow was very noticeable in the growing dark. Fair slowly lowered himself, one bit at a time and wincing noticeably. He reached fingers into the holes in the side of his shirt and pulled out a bullet half flat from impact with a bone or something. Then another one. And another. It was like a sick magic show with bullets instead of gil.

The poor guy looked bewildered by all the metal he found.

"As you heal more come out," Cloud explained.

Those eyes turned in his direction. "Hurts." Fair's fingers plucked uselessly at the material and he arched his back, grimacing.

Right, Cloud realized. Some of the bullets had probably pooled at the waistline.

"Right," he repeated out loud but mostly to himself. "Not gonna fix it by pulling them out one at a time." He stood and moved over to Zack. He held out his hand. "On your feet, yah?"

Slowly, as if he'd never seen an outstretched hand before, Fair reached out and grabbed onto Cloud. Cloud braced himself and pulled. The SOLDIER helped as much as he was able, and it wasn't long until Zack was on his feet. He was a little taller than their roof was high, but since his healing body wouldn't let him stand straight, it wasn't much of a problem. Fair leaned on the rock while Cloud considered things.

"Your shirt's wrecked," he said.

Zack wove his fingers into the shredded material. "Got nothing else."

Cloud nodded. ""Figured. Gotta tank top, sleeveless. Might fit."

Zack gave a slow nod, so Cloud grabbed the grubby shirt he used for physical labour. He also brought out his knife. "Gonna cut this off you. Shouldn't take long." It was a joke, but the SOLDIER didn't smile.

It only took a couple slices for the pieces of shirt to fall away, freeing dozens of bullets from their cloth home. They dropped to the ground with soft phuts. The falling shirt made no sound.

Maybe it was the uncertain light of the fire, but Zack was skinnier than Cloud had thought – those were ribs showing – and Cloud could see where the bullets had gone in because each entry point was the centre of a multi-coloured bruise. And Zack was bruised from hip to collarbone.

"Scaley dragon tits,' Cloud whispered. "Why'd they do this?" He looked at Zack, wanting an answer, but Zack was staring at the ground, at the pooled remains of his uniform.

"Does this mean I'm not SOLDIER anymore?"

Cloud started to say the army that had tried to kill Zack was probably a good indicator that Zack was no longer SOLDIER, but Cloud held in the words. He knew the kind of dedication it took to become SOLDIER, even just a Third, and Zack Fair had been a SOLDIER First. That meant _years_ of practice and being an experiment. It would be cruel to make light of losing that.

He put his hand on Zack's bare shoulder. "Means you're free to choose."

It didn't seem to make the guy happy.

Cloud sighed. There wasn't much reassurance he could give. Shinra was shit, and if it had taken Zack until now to realize it, there wasn't much Cloud could do. Instead, he knelt and tapped Zack's boot. "Need to empty your pant legs too," he said.

Zack didn't try to help. Or rather, he leaned his weight against the rock and didn't fall over, and that was help enough. The boot tops were oddly wrapped, but close enough to what Cloud remembered from his army days that it wasn't long until he had one untied. As soon at the pant leg was loose, a dozen or more bullets fell to the ground.

To be thorough, Cloud took the boot off as well. He winced at the smell. "Long time since you had clean socks?" He shook a loose bullet out of Zack's boot and tossed the sock outside so it wouldn't stink up their sleeping area.

"Stole some in…" Zack's voice trailed off. "Huh. Fort Condor, maybe?"

It made Cloud wonder how long the SOLDIER had been running. "Do you know what day it is?"

Zack blinked down at him. Cloud left him to his thinking and removed the other boot. This sock smelled as bad as the other. "Got clean socks in my bag." He didn't wait for Zack's agreement, but he did make sure the First was securely braced and wouldn't fall while he got the socks.

"Last date I remember clearly is 18 December oh-6," Zack said. "Year six," he muttered. "Fuuuuck."

"Nearly a year ago," Cloud pointed out. It was a surprisingly long time for someone to survive being hunted by Shinra. Unless they just had him on a long, long leash…

"Seems longer."

Cloud snorted. "Fear'll do that." He put his socks on Zack, and then the boots. He wrapped the pant legs as best he could. "C'mon. Sleep time."

Zack didn't protest, so Cloud helped him back to the bed roll. Getting down turned out to be as slow as getting up, but they made it. "Be joining you under the blanket," Cloud warned. Zack just flapped a hand and breathed.

Cloud walked out around the rock to empty his bladder. Usually he'd take the time to brush his teeth and tidy up his campsite, but right now it was enough that he'd cleaned the dishes.

He grabbed Iron Blade and set it down next to the bedroll. Then, as he lay down next to Zack, he cast a low Barrier around the campsite. It was a trick he'd learned from a grizzled sergeant, back when he'd been an infantryman. It wasn't as good as having an active watch, but it should wake Cloud if something big crossed the line.

Like Zack he took a moment to just breathe. This was not what he'd planned to do today at all.

In the distance, a plains wolf howled to its pack, and soon there were several voices howling into the night. Wex gave a soft kweh and Deza warked back. Beside him Zack tensed.

"Don't worry," Cloud said softly. "Wolves are far away." He let his eyes drift shut, used to the sounds of the wild.

Zack didn't relax. "I probably trained some of the people I killed today," he said.

Cloud's eyes snapped open. "So?"

"So nothing." Zack gave an unhappy laugh. "It's just… At one point, I'd've died to protect them."

Cloud snorted. "If they didn't recognize you, or if they did and didn't try to stop it, then you're not responsible for their deaths," he said. "You have a right to defend yourself."

"What about defending my honour as SOLDIER?" he asked. "Where does that come in?"

"Somewhere after the point they used mortars on you." There was a soft huff of laughter to his side, and Cloud took that as a win. "Nobody but a SOLDIER could've survived what you did today. Would've made your mentor proud."

There was dead silence from Zack's side of the bedroll.

"Sleep, Zack," Cloud ordered. "Demons enough tomorrow."

"Cheerful shit, ain't ya." But the words were slurred and soon enough the First's breathing evened out and his body relaxed into bonelessness.

Cloud's last thought was that he'd bet 10 gil that Zack had stolen all the covers by morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A truss is a real (though obsolete) measurement. It was used for a long time for shipments of hay or straw and there were laws saying how much it should weigh. I've completely ignored all that, because I wanted to use the word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truss_(unit)


	2. Stumbling into Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zack heals physically, but emotionally he has a harder time. Cloud turns out to be pretty cool though. A hero in his own small way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter mentions Hojo's "scientific experiments". It's not explicit, but we know enough about Hojo to have it blow up in our minds.
> 
> Also, I have a playlist on Spotify that I write this to. If you're interested, I'm etrixan there, too.

Zack dreamed of flying around his home village as he chased a laughing, flying bear that trailed sunshiny sparkles. It was a great dream until the air turned green, the sparkles started to burn, and the giggles morphed into Hojo's insane crackle.

Thankfully, his PHS trilled and he dragged himself further out of the dream with each ring. He shuffled around, trying to find it. It had to be somewhere near his oddly lumpy bed…

"Hi."

An unknown male was right next to him.

" _Where_ are _you? Expected you in last night_." That voice was female; not one he knew.

"I'm fine, Tifa." Actually, oddly, the man's voice was somewhat familiar.

" _And you couldn't call me_?"

"You're not my mother, Tifa. Don't owe you updates."

Woah! Harsh. The hurt silence from the end of the PHS agreed with Zack.

"Sorry."

The guy should be.

" _No. You're right_ ," the girl said. " _Friends though, so I'm allowed to worry_."

"True. Just…" Zack heard cloth rustling and felt the guy next to him sit up. "Shinra was blocking the road with some kind of military action. Waited until they cleared out, is all."

" _Heard nothing on th…_ "

The voice faded as Zack's body grew heavy and he became slightly removed from everything except his skin. He was hyper-aware of every touch of cloth, every bit of breeze… He could feel every bullet, every blast, every bit of magic that had been thrown at him.

" _What's that?_ "

Zack must have made a sound.

"Something on the ridge, maybe," the guy said. "I'm gonna head out. See you soon. Probably not today. Or tomorrow."

Zack didn't listen to the rest of the call. He was busy swallowing and trying to breathe through a suddenly tight throat. They'd killed him.

"Fair?" The voice was gentle. It made Zack's chest hurt.

Like Genesis and Angeal, he'd been declared dead before it was true, and so Shinra had sent an army to kill him and they'd come damn close.

"'s okay." A warm hand gripped his arm. Everything else felt cold. "You're allowed to cry. So I'm told." The dry snark in the last sentence forced a reluctant huff of laughter from Zack.

"Mostly dead all day?" he managed to say.

"Yah."

So Zack raised his arm to cover his eyes and let them leak out all the pain and stress he'd felt since he'd escaped from the lab in Nibelheim. He didn't even begin to touch the time spent _in_ the lab, but it was enough for now.

Around him he heard the guy – vaguely remembered from… last night? – move around the space. A fire, the smell of food cooking, then a chocobo's soft kweh. It was such a hard disconnect from the memories in Zack's head that he actually felt dizzy, just lying here on the ground.

The fit, or paroxysm, or spell, or whatever had just happened passed, as they always did. Zack still felt heavy – and now he had a headache – but he also felt a little better. And a lot embarrassed.

A handkerchief fell on his face.

"Food's just about ready," the guy said. "If you're up to eating it." Zack's stomach growled loudly in anticipation. The guy laughed softly. "That's a yes."

Then Zack felt the familiar zing of a healing spell. His headache disappeared, along with various other small hurts he'd been ignoring. His torso still radiated pain, and his sinuses were still plugged, but he had the handkerchief for the latter.

When his eyes were wiped and nose blown, Zack looked at the thoroughly used bit of cloth in his hand.

He looked at the guy he'd woken up beside and whose name he should probably know. His good Samaritan was in his early 20s. He had very blue eyes, pale, freckled skin that was maybe a little sun burnt. His hair stuck up every which way, and there was a hardness about it that spoke of bad experience and tough living. He looked like he didn't smile much.

"I'm sorry. I don't remember your name." Easiest to get that out of the way. "And, uh…?" He waved the drenched handkerchief.

"Name's Cloud. You're Zack, by the way. Just in case." Zack gave an exaggerated frown. Cloud's eyes crinched in amusement. "Keep the handkerchief."

Zack didn't actually want to. (It was disgusting.) He casually dropped it on the ground next to him.

When Zack turned back around, the guy was still watching him. This time he was smiling in gentle mockery. In his hand he held an enameled field cup filled with steaming black liquid.

"Can you sit up on your own?" Cloud asked.

It was a good question. Zack still felt heavy – like his bones were stone and his muscles were straw. Only one way to find out…

He clenched his abdominals and barely got his shoulders off the ground. Then there was a strong arm under him, lifting him the rest of the way.

"Tried that last night," Cloud said. "Didn't work then either."

"I nearly died."

"Waited near two hours for the fighting to stop."

Fuck.

Zack thought, why hadn't they used the Turks? But he said, "That's a lot of bullets."

"Yah," Cloud agreed. "Speaking of, you probably got rid of more overnight. Might want to empty your shirt?"

Zack frowned. "Empty my…?" He plucked at his shirt, looking down at it, and realized that it _wasn't_ his shirt. It was a blue tank top that was just a little too small, and "Where's my stomach guard?" He felt around his shoulders. "And my harness."

"Gone. Shot to shit and useless as a dragon's prayer," Cloud answered. "Dumped 'em in a ravine so Shinra wouldn't find 'em if they went looking for you."

Zack had been ready to get angry, but Cloud's answer was logical and practical. And somewhat heartbreaking. He'd worn a stomach guard nearly everyday since joining Shinra. It was an intrinsic part of the uniform. It was as much a part of him as his hair, or the eyes.

All he'd ever wanted was to be a hero. SOLDIER had seemed like the perfect way to become that, and Zack had loved being a SOLDIER. Most of it. Most of the time. Until he realized that SOLDIER was built on lies and betrayal. Shinra hadn't been making heroes – they wouldn't know how. Instead they made monsters because they were monsters themselves.

What the hells was he supposed to do now?

"A whole world of choices for you now." Cloud said as if he could read Zack's mind. "Maybe we don't need SOLDIERs, but always a need for decent people who are kind and try to make things better." He handed Zack the cup.

It was coffee, kind of. Actually, it was mostly grounds when he took a sip, but it was still tasty.

"And how do I make things better?" Zack growled. "I can't sing."

Cloud snickered. "People in every sector say the same thing: monsters are getting worse, harder to kill, sneakier. Hire yourself out as a mercenary like me. Clear out the monsters, keep the sectors safe for ordinary people. Be a hero but for hire, yah?" Cloud slashed him a look. "Might get paid in chickens and potions, but still worthwhile."

Zack could've been suspicious, but he was mostly tired. He drank the coffee (or ate it, depending on the viewpoint) and felt some brain cells come back online. "How'd you know I wanted to be a hero?"

Cloud gave him a lopsided smirk. He exchanged the empty cup for a plate full of breakfast. "People joined SOLDIER to be famous or a hero. You weren't that famous."

Zack stopped with the toast halfway to his mouth. "You recognized me?"

Cloud tipped his head, embarrassed. "Wanted to join SOLDIER once." He glanced back at Zack and answered the next question. "Famous, to show my hometown I wasn't just a weirdo."

Zack nodded. First thing Luxiere had done on being made SOLDIER Third was to go home and show off.

"Actually, we met once," Cloud said quietly. "Mission in Modeoheim, six or so years ago. Just two backwater country boys out for a stroll in ice-covered mountains." Cloud kept his gaze on the fire, but Zack knew the guy was focused on him, on his reaction – would Zack remember him.

There were a lot of things about that mission he wanted to forget, but they were kind of etched into his brain. Tseng crashed the helicopter and they'd had to walk. The only one who'd kept up had been some blond kid from Nibelheim…

"A mako reactor outside of Midgar…" he started.

"Usually means there's nothing else out there," Cloud completed.

Zack could almost chuckle – that mission was second only to Nibelheim for worst assignment he'd ever had.

"Sorry you didn't make it into SOLDIER."

"I'm not. Not anymore," the guy said.

There was a wealth of bitterness behind his flat tone, so Zack backed away from the conversation and ate more breakfast instead. He wondered how Luxiere was doing. He'd been a junior Second when Zack left, anxious for promotion. In fact, his last message had been… Zack hadn't responded because it had felt a little off, but maybe he'd been a bit paranoid?

He checked his pockets. They were flat and empty. "My PHS!"

"Sorry. Destroyed in the fight," Cloud said. "Tossed it in a hole."

Zack dropped his head. All his messages! Kunsel, Luxiere – even the fan club updates. Gone. Another disconnect from who he'd been.

"Got your SIM card." Zack vaguely remembered SIM cards as permanent memory or something. "Soon as you plug it in, Shinra'll know you're still alive."

It was a fair point. Was it worth it? Would Shinra send out another army to kill him? "How long since Shinra declared me dead?"

"December. Year 3," Cloud said softly. Zack must've been quiet for a while. "But you disappeared a couple months before, during 'The Incident'."

Zack could hear the air quotes, the utter rejection for whatever story Shinra had put out to cover Sephiroth's actions.

"What about Sephiroth?" Zack asked. "Was he declared dead?"

Cloud nodded. "Both of you. Same mission."

Zack didn't want to ask the next question, but he had to. "And what year–"

"Year 7. Asked the same thing last night." Cloud looked at him and tipped his chin. "Eat up. Still hava delivery to make."

"Aren't you… Y'know, gonna ask?"

The guy lowered his half-empty plate. "Wanna tell me?" he asked back.

Zack's instinctive response was a resounding 'no', but maybe he should tell _somebody_?

"Find somebody you trust, then tell _them_ ," Cloud said and went back to his food.

Find somebody he trusted. Zack nearly snorted. The people he'd trusted most were dead or spies. That made him think of Tseng.

He'd put Aerith in Tseng's hands before he left to go to Nibelheim. He wondered if the Turk had kept his promise, or had he gathered her up and turned her over to Hojo? Because that had been the threat, hadn't it? The last living Ancient would be left alone to live in the slums as long as Shinra didn't want her.

"I need to get to my girl," Zack finally said.

Cloud paused what he was doing – scraping the remains into the fire it looked like. "Think she's waited?"

Zack shrugged. "I gotta hope so, right?" Gods, he hoped so.

Cloud gave it careful consideration before nodding. "Gotta have dreams," he said, and the air rushed out of Zack's lungs. "Makes waking up each day a whole lot easier."

_Unattainable dreams are the best kind._

"Zack?"

Zack's lungs were tight. He couldn't breathe. He could hear his heartbeat, feel it in his head. It was… It was…

"Hey, s'okay. Look at me. Look at me."

Zack raised his head. Cloud was right there, eyebrows wrinkled in concern.

"Breathe with me, okay? Just breathe. All you gotta do."

And they breathed – in two, three, four; out, two, three, four – until the grey faded from Zack's vision. He sucked in a huge gulping breath. And it was over. Whatever ' _it_ ' had been.

He looked up at Cloud, who'd helped him once again.

"Panic attack," Cloud said.

Oh.

Okay.

"Used to get them before. Might again, I suppose." Cloud clapped him on the shoulder. "Finish your food. I'll clean up."

Zack did as he was told, mechanically funneling the food from the plate to his mouth. He was probably doing it a disservice, it was probably very tasty, but it was enough that he _was_ doing it. Why was he falling apart now? He'd been on the run from Shinra for months, and yet an hour with Cloud and he'd bawled his eyes out and freaked the fuck out. Why?

Worse, by the time he'd finished eating, his arms felt beyond tired. They felt like his first days learning how to use a sword – every muscle from his neck to his fingers felt like that snotty rag he'd discarded.

The plate fell from his hands.

Cloud picked it up. "Don't worry about it."

Zack tried to smile. "Mostly dead, right?"

Cloud nodded as if it were that easy. Zack watched Cloud clean the plate and pack everything away in saddle bags. Zack watched Cloud prepare the chocobos – a lovely green and a sturdy-looking yellow. He watched Cloud bury their small campfire with dirt, and he watched Cloud pick up traces of their visit. All while he sat there and did nothing.

Something screeed from up on the cliffs, and the yellow hopped anxiously. There wasn't much light in their little space of the planet, but it was enough to see…

"Is that my sword?"

Cloud glanced. "Figured you'd want it."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." He'd just assumed that Cloud had dropped it in a hole like Zack's armour and his phone.

Cloud nodded and went back to doing everything.

Zack looked at Galatine, the sword he'd inherited from Angeal. If he'd died on the cliff top, who'd have taken it? Who'd have carried on the legacy? "What do you think of it?

Cloud looked at him, surprised. He shrugged. "Decent balance but heavy. What's it weigh?"

"More than it should, sometimes," Zack acknowledged sadly. "It was left to me. A symbol of dreams and honour."

" _Your_ dreams and honour?" Cloud asked mildly. "Or somebody else's?"

It snapped Zack out of the memories. "What?"

But he'd said it too softly for Cloud to hear because Cloud was over by the green chocobo, putting some final bits of kit into the saddlebags.

Zack tried to stand up.

Nothing happened.

Giving up on anything like his usual style, he rolled over onto all fours and levered his way up piece by piece. He got to his knees and had to take a break.

"Not bad," Cloud said. He cast another healing spell, and it was enough for Zack to get his feet under him. (He had to use Cloud for balance, but otherwise it was all him.) He gave a (very) small bounce, testing the waters as it were, and hit his head on the stone roof for his daring.

"I'm jingling," he said. "Is that the bullets you were talking about?"

Cloud nodded. He grabbed the skinny bedroll and shook it out. Zack saw even more metal fall to the dirt. " _So many_ bullets. Every Cure pushed more out through your skin," he said.

"Eww!"

"Didn't know SOLDIERs did that."

"Neither did I," Zack grimaced. "Glad I was unconscious for most of it." He untucked a corner of the tank top. He tipped a little (using the rock to brace himself this time) and let the little bits of metal fall. There did seem to be a lot of them.

It felt weird not to have the stomach guard or the shoulder pads. He was pretty sure he hadn't been allowed them in Hojo's lab, but he'd been unconscious or drugged most of the time. They could've kept him naked and he would've hardly noticed. In fact, he was pretty sure he _had_ been kept naked for most of it.

"So, mercenary huh." He shook his right leg. "Is that what you are?"

"Pays the bills," Cloud shrugged. "Plus, depending on the creature, I can salvage body parts and sell them to artificers for potions. Decent money and better than working for Don Corneo."

"Who's Don Corneo?"

"Runs Wall Market: prostitution, smuggling, illegal fights – or would be illegal if Shinra gave a shit about the undercities."

"Wall Market," Zack said, confused. "The one in Sector 6?"

Cloud nodded. Then his brows went up as if enlightened. "Corneo only moved in couple years ago, so you wouldn't know. Real scuzzbag," he said. "Showed up outta nowhere with enough muscle to take over the busiest district under the plate. All his competition – gangs or legitimate – disappeared or died in less than a year. Leaving only him."

"I missed all that," Zack said blankly. Could he have stopped it if he hadn't been in Hojo's hands?

"Sound of your voice says you woulda fought it,"

It was Zack's turn to shrug.

Cloud shook his head. "Corneo's backed by someone powerful. Only way to take over a whole sector that fast. That means Wutai or Shinra's staking him, and if it was Wutai, then the Turks woulda gotten rid of him by now."

"You think he works for Shinra."

"Lotta information gets funneled through Wall Market one way or another. Even odds it's going above the plate." He paused. "It's bigger than it was, louder. Decent people can still live in the edges where Corneo's not interested. Has the best blacksmith under the plate. Made my sword." Cloud tipped his chin at the blade mounted in a fancy harness attached to the green chobobo's saddle. "Haven't lost a battle with it yet."

"Any other big changes I should know about?" Zack meant it sarcastically, but Cloud frowned in thought.

"Gongaga reactor blew up couple years ago."

" _That_ I already knew."

Cloud looked at him. "Went back to your hometown?" Zack nodded. "Did they rebuild it? Make it look like nothing happened?"

Zack shook his head, no, but then he wondered why not? Shinra had completely rebuilt Nibelheim. So perfectly that Zack had felt like he'd actually gone back in time.

"Lucky," Cloud said. "Nothing makes you more lost than having a hometown that isn't yours anymore."

Again, Zack's breath was taken from him. "Your… folks? Did Sephiroth–"

"I don't deliver to Nibelheim." Cloud's back was stiff. "Last time I was there, they had four strangers calling themselves 'Strife' – husband, wife, two kids. But before, there was only ever me and my ma. They erased us, erased _her,_ 'cause we didn't matter. Just stupid peasants." He glared up at the plate before striding away to … somewhere else. The green gave a soft, sad kweh.

Unlike the chocobo, Zack didn't try to call Cloud back. Instead he decided it would be a good time to empty his bladder. He tried to push away from the stone, and he did manage to stand up straight. Moving his feet was another matter entirely.

In the end, he leaned against the rock and shuffled around the corner like a drunkard. He had to keep one hand on the rock so he wouldn't fall over, but he managed his business without getting any on his boots. Then he shuffled back around to see every trace of their campsite erased – except for all the bullets scattered in the dirt.

"Think you can ride a chocobo?"

Zack considered how rubbery his legs felt even from the short distance around the rock. "Not by myself."

Cloud nodded as if Zack's confession was neither surprising nor worthy of note. Zack saw the gleam of green materia, and then he was surrounded by a cast Cura. Cloud's straightforward approach to Zack's weakness helped the SOLDIER feel less embarrassed by it

"Deza can take us both. You ride behind and hold onto me, yah?" Cloud was already moving towards him, already taking some of Zack's weight, helping him over to where the two birds waited patiently.

They stopped at the green. "Deza," he said. He pointed his chin at the yellow. "Wex. Told you their names last night, but you might not remember." He gave a soft whistle, and Deza crouched. "Don't fall on my bird, or I'll kill you again."

Cloud helped Zack get his leg over and to sit down without falling. The green warked nervously but Cloud whistled softly and it settled, concerned but trusting. Then Cloud took his place in front of Zack and the green rocked up to his feet – _all_ the way up.

Zack wrapped his arms around Cloud's waist and held on as the bird heaved forwards and backwards.

"Fucking hell! Please tell me it's not going to be like that the rest of the way." He'd forgotten how tall these suckers were when you were actually _on_ one.

Cloud huffed a short laugh. "Don't like chocobos?"

"We had training on them – this is the front (it bites), this is the back (it shits) – but I didn't take to them like some of the other guys did, and honestly? I was usually flown into my missions," Zack said. "I used a motorcycle for personal stuff. Or ran. I used to like running. Any kind of exercise, really." Zack had a sudden memory of being in line at medical, doing squats as he waited to be called in for his SOLDIER injection. He'd been so young and optimistic.

"Well, don't worry. Gonna stay slow – easier for you _and_ Deza. Gonna take a while to reach the outskirts," Cloud said. "Might as well nap if you can."

Zack felt the unfamiliar bounce and drop of the chocobo's movement, looked at the ground passing below him and doubted he'd be able to sleep.

"So how much trouble would it be to take me to Sector 5," he asked.

Cloud glanced over his shoulder. "Trains to the upper plate in most every sector."

"Yeah, but my girl's in Sector 5."

"Your girl's under the plate?" Cloud said in disbelief.

"Uh-huh, she sells flowers," Zack replied proudly. "At least, I hope she's still selling flowers."

They were silent for a hundred metres. "Heard of a girl in Sector 5 who grows flowers," Cloud said eventually. "In a church?"

"Yeah! That's Aerith. That's my girl!" Zack practically shouted it. Aerith was still alive, still free!

"Thought her name was Aeris."

Zack waved that away, "Aerith. Aeris. It's her," he said happily.

Cloud watched him for a long while, but Zack didn't care. Aerith was out there. There was still a chance.

"Need to stop at Wall Market anyway," Cloud finally said. "Do that first then Sector 5's just beyond."

"Oh, man!" Zack's smile was wide enough to hurt. "I'm gonna owe you _so much._ "

In front of him, Cloud shifted, head dropping. "Thanks aren't needed."

"They totally are," Zack argued. "I'll be completely in your debt for the rest of my life. Which, if the Turks have orders to kill me might be within five minutes of showing up at Aerith's."

Again, Cloud turned around to stare at Zack in disbelief. "That likely?"

Zack raised his shoulder, "Ehh?"

Cloud turned back to face front, and there was quiet between them until it was time to stop for lunch. Zack was more than ready to get off the chocobo, and he thought that maybe he could do it by himself, but rather than take a chance he let the smaller man help him up and off.

Good thing, too.

As soon as Cloud let him go, Zack's legs folded under him like an accordion. He ended up sitting cross-legged in the dirt, right next to the green's very big, probably sharp claws.

"Can I be embarrassed now?" he asked of no one.

"Tomorrow," Cloud replied and cast Cura. It was enough of a boost that Zack could stand again. He pulled the tank top away from his waist and let the bullets fall. He'd been picking them out as they rode. "I'm surprised I have any guts left, given all the metal that's come out of me." He shook a leg and it jingled a little too. "We could've made a decent sized sword if we'd kept them and melted them all down," he said morbidly.

After a minute of staring, Cloud shook his head. "Shinra uses cheap metal. Would never hold an edge."

Zack laughed. "Maybe a gun, then?" He watched Cloud consider it before giving an uncommitted head wiggle. "I guess it might be conspicuous if we tried to sell twenty kilos of used bullets?"

Cloud smirked. "Just a little, maybe."

Zack shook his other leg, and it jingled as well. He'd never been hurt so bad before.

Well, that was a lie. Hojo had hurt him plenty, but he'd never been _shot_ so much before. Sure, he'd taken bullets – half a dozen or more sometimes. It was considered acceptable damage to reach the target.

This, however, was ridiculous because Cloud was right: Zack _wasn't_ that well known. His reappearance wouldn't be news. Unlike with Angeal or Genesis, his mere existence wouldn't destabilize Shinra. Plus, people in the company had known he hadn't died with Sephiroth. Every scientist, lab assistant, cleaner, cook and delivery person in that lab had been Shinra employees.

Hojo hadn't even tried to hide Zack's identity – Specimen Z!

But not one person had called him by name. Not one person had tried to help. They'd seen him, and they hadn't cared. If they'd reported it, their superiors hadn't cared. If they'd gone to the press – well. The press was Shinra's too.

All the way up to the top, after spending _years_ telling him how valued he was by the company, how they _appreciated_ all his hard work, his loyalty…

If he had Sephiroth's power right now – and a whole lot of his crazy – Zack would be tempted to try and take down Shinra. Stride right into the president's office and skewer the bastard in his high-backed chair. And then he'd cast Quake in the foundations and shake the rotten cesspit into dust.

But he wasn't as powerful, and he wasn't as crazy.

And even if Zack did kill Roman Shinra, Rufus would just take his place – or Scarlet, or Heidegger – and nothing would change.

To take his mind off Shinra and evil in general, Zack shuffled carefully back to the yellow pack chocobo. The bird made a nervous sound as he approached but Cloud was suddenly there, calming the chocobo.

"Want your sword?" he asked.

Zack said yes, and Cloud nodded back in understanding. He'd shifted his own weapon from the saddle to his back, carrying it in a low-slung sheath made for a side draw.

It took some time for Galatine to be untied. "Gotta not cut the ropes or the spell holders, yah?"

Zack was careful, but it was hard not to yank it free.

When it finally slid all the way out, he let it swing a little, keeping the arc shallow. It wasn't easy. (When he looked at his arms, he could see divots where bullets had torn through the muscle – muscle he needed to wield the sword.) He managed to keep control, though, and ended his short (very short) kata with the blade in front of him and not on the ground. He bowed his head, resting his brow on the metal as he had so many times before.

"Embrace your dreams," he whispered. "And protect your honour as SOLDIER."

He let the blade drop to his side, missing the harness already. Cloud held up a ration bar. "Can't cook here. The smell will attract animals – dangerous ones."

Zack wasn't sure how they'd be able to smell anything over Midgar's pervasive stench, but he shrugged. When Cloud sat, he sat too. It was a chance to look over Angeal's sword, his legacy. The hilt needed to be rewrapped, of course. Zack had put something together to replace the braid that had fallen apart on the road, but he kind of wanted it to be red again. Like when Angeal had given it to him.

There were nicks, and a few scratches shining through the dull coating it had acquired over four years of imperfect care, and outright neglect.

" 'Use brings about wear, tear and rust'," he murmured sadly as his fingertips explored the damage.

"Good steel to survive that battle," Cloud said.

Zack jerked his eyes to Cloud's. He'd forgotten he wasn't alone.

"It was my mentor's," Zack finally said. "A symbol of his family's pride and honour. He didn't have anyone else to give it to when he… When he was killed."

Cloud gave Zack the water bag. "They reported seeing him around a while back. Nothing recent though."

"Yeah, I heard." Zack kept his eyes on the blade, tracing the lines carved into it. They could use some work, too.

"It true then? He alive?"

Zack shook his head. "It wasn't him. Just another Shinra experiment gone wrong."

"And Genesis Rhapsodos? Is he really dead?" Cloud asked. "Cuz those Crimson Army freaks looked a lot like him under the helmets."

"I think so?" This time Zack shrugged. "He wasn't doing too good last time I saw him." He took another sip of water and wished that it were whiskey. Then he wished that he could still get drunk on whiskey.

Beside him, Cloud snorted. "Does any First Class SOLDIER stay dead?" He flashed Zack a quick smile. "So far, Shinra's wrong on three out of four."

Zack chuckled. Cloud wasn't wrong. "Well, I ran Sephiroth through with this." He held up Galatine. "He was shot a lot, and then someone flung him into the reactor's liquid mako reservoir, so I'm thinking he's gone for good. Angeal… " His laugh died. "I killed him, too." He looked at Cloud, gauging the guy's response. There was nothing but calm attention.

"He asked me to do it. Forced me to." Zack went on. He kept his eyes on the weapon, hands sweeping along its length restlessly. "They were degrading, him and Genesis. Something in how they'd been made went wrong, and they stopped healing, grew wings and all sorts of weird shit."

"Wings?" Cloud asked, voice soft.

"They weren't just injected with mako," Zack said. "Hollander – their creator – used cells from some alien-looking creature, and there was probably other stuff too. To make them stronger, faster. Invincible." He took a breath. "It worked for a while. Long enough to conquer Wutai."

"All the chimeras and copies?"

"Experiments. Looking for a cure."

Cloud grunted, an unimpressed huff of sound. "Sephiroth? He degrade too?"

"No… I don't know," he corrected. "He was made with a different process."

"More of those alien cells though, right?" Zack looked at him, eyes narrowed. Cloud waved a hand over his face. "The eyes."

Zack nodded. "Jenova. She was… enthroned, at the reactor. Sephiroth thought she was his mother." He gave a sad laugh. "That alien _thing_ couldn't have given life to a flea, let alone Sephiroth. I don't know why he believed it…"

"Hmm," Cloud's response was non-committal, and Zack remembered Cloud's mother had been one of Sephiroth's victims. All the people he'd grown up with had died at Sephiroth's hands.

Zack put his head up. The sky was half plate now, and the ground was mostly in shadow. "Shinra is fuuucked up. But if it falls, Rufus and Scarlet, and Heidegger and Palmer will kill us all in their fight to take over."

A hand landed on his shoulder. "Not your concern, right now," Cloud said. "Right now, you have to let your flower girl know you're alive, yah?" Zack gave the guy a weak smile. He was right, but it still felt like a cop out.

He let Cloud help him to his feet, and he let Cloud thread Angeal's sword carefully beside the packages on Wex. He managed to mount Deza on his own, so there was that.

He could see the outlines of the shacks that made up the sectors under the plate. He knew there'd been villages here before Shinra, but he'd never seen any remains. Except for Aerith's stone church. Other than that, all the houses and shops and warehouses down here were made of scavenged metals and wood.

That said, he'd never had a reason to visit all the sectors under the plate. Maybe, in Sector 2, there was a whole village that looked just like Healin?

He didn't think so, though. Shinra would've torn it down just because.

To pass the time (and to take his mind off the dark thoughts that had been invading it since before he'd killed Hollander in Gongaga), Zack asked Cloud questions. Whatever he could think of: why had Cloud been out on the ridge yesterday? How long had he had Deza? Where should Zack take his sword to get the damage buffed out? If he wanted to take a bath before meeting up with Aerith, where should he go?

He was so busy asking his stupid questions, and picking apart Cloud's increasingly short answers, that he barely noticed the gorger swarm jumping in front of them.

Cloud was off Deza instantly, whistling a command at the green that had it backing away. The guy pulled out his sword and got ready to swing. The gorger on the right lunged, and Cloud swung, leaving his left side open and vulnerable.

"Ah, _hells_ no," Zack muttered. He swung his leg over Deza's head and slid off. He wobbled a bit on the landing, but he was steadier than he'd been at lunch.

Cloud had dodged the initial attack, but he'd been forced to the side. One of the gorgers was heading towards the birds.

No time to unwrap the buster, so Zack glanced over the ground, looking for something, anything he could use. A thick branch, dried nearly to stone, would work. He picked it up and walked out to meet the oversized worm.

It was different using a club. When Zack hit the creature, the weapon didn't slice through in one smooth motion. Instead it impacted, and the shock ran back up the length of the branch and rattled the bones in his hand.

Zack ignored the sensation and swung again. He adjusted his target area though. If he could smash the thing's tiny brain, that would be as effective as slicing through its neck.

He hoped.

Gorgers were tough. They had to be to survive in Midgar's wastes. And with an unfamiliar weapon (and having been mostly dead just yesterday), it took a lot longer to kill this one creature than it usually took Zack to kill a cluster of them. By the time he was sure his was dead, Cloud had killed the other three.

Zack was also breathing a lot harder than he should've been. He actually had to bend over.

While he did that, Cloud pulled out a long, slim knife and cut open the mouths of the gorgers he'd killed. Zack watched as Cloud removed small poison sacs out of their cheeks. The guy tied the sacs closed or twisted them somehow. Whatever he did, once he'd done it, he carried the deadly poison with ease.

He passed Zack on his way back to Deza. "Pharmacists make antidotes from them. Get 20 gil each."

Zack straightened. "Not bad, I guess."

Cloud looked at him, smirking. "I also get a discount on potions and ethers for keeping them supplied."

Before Zack had never had to worry about _buying_ potions, or ethers. Shinra had kept them supplied. All he'd had to do was go to the quartermaster and sign a bunch of forms.

He had a lot of new, non-silly questions, to ask his rescuer.

"Oh, hey. Nearly forgot." Cloud held out a hand. In it, was a slightly small orb of blue materia. "Found this on the ridge. Might be Absorption. It's yours."

"Mine?" Zack looked at Cloud. The guy was serious. "Why?"

"Almost died for it, didn't you?" Cloud rolled it so that it was held only by his fingertips.

It was… That was gruesome. But not untrue, Zack supposed. And he'd been without support materia since he'd escaped.

He didn't have a socket in his gloves, so he shoved it in his pocket.

Cloud caught it when it fell it through the bullet holes. "Maybe your other side."

Zack took it back. "Thanks."

This time he checked the pocket before putting the materia in.

The next couple hours were uneventful, aside from Zack's endless questions about the cost of things he used to take for granted: food, clothing, potions, weapon repair, gas for a motorbike, an actual motorbike… The basics.

Again, it took him a while to notice something. This time, that they weren't getting any closer to any of the buildings under the plate. When he leaned forward to ask the guy the reason, Cloud jerked his shoulder and whapped Zack in the chin.

"That's Sector 8," Cloud said while Zack checked his jaw for dislocation. "We want Sector 6."

"Uh-huh," Zack said. He already knew the load of kurie greens was for a guy outside of Wall Market.

"Walls between each area," Cloud continued. "Each one with security. Go in now and we show your face to every camera at every wall. Also," he added. "It takes three times as long. Streets just kind of grew under the plate; none of them go straight. None of them are wide. All of them'll be crowded, so lots of people looking at us two idiots on chocobos."

Zack thought back to his memories of visiting Aerith before… He actually couldn't remember a single person below the plate riding a chocobo.

"We'd kinda stick out, huh."

"Kinda," Cloud confirmed dryly. "So, stay out here 'til we reach Sector 6. Then use the latest smuggler's path over the debris which shouldn't have cameras yet."

"You know all the smuggler's paths?" Zack made sure his voice matched Cloud's for dryness. Cloud just smiled and didn't respond.

They stopped once more to stretch their legs and water the chocobos, but they made good time. Zack's stomach was just starting to seriously protest the lack of proper attention when they reached a huge pile of girders, concrete, and garbage that divided the Midgar wastes from the undercity. The pile next to Sector 6 was double the height of the one next to Sector 7.

"Why is this so big," Zack said. He looked up at the plate. Sector 6 was as unfinished as ever. In fact, it looked like some had fallen off.

"Leftovers from abandoned construction. Plus some of the plate collapsed earlier this year." – Hah! Zack had been right – "Most of it was pushed out as the undercity grew; stuff that couldn't be salvaged immediately. Some of it placed so outsiders couldn't see in."

"That Don Corneo dude built his own wall?" He laughed.

Cloud looked over his shoulder at him. "Don Corneo's no joke. Takes his money very, very seriously." It was a warning.

Zack quieted, accepting it, but Cloud wasn't finished.

"If he needs you, he'll go after your family, the people you love, or just some stranger off the street. Doesn't care if they're young or old, male or female, as long as it lets him control you. Or causes you pain."

In some ways, it reminded Zack of how Shinra operated.

"Personal experience?" he asked.

Cloud tipped his head. "Not mine, but yah."

Zack let the next few kilometres pass without comment, wondering why he was so surprised there was evil under the plate. He'd spent enough time in the undercity to know the citizens weren't saints, and then there was Reno. But he'd somehow had the impression that the residents were all united somehow – pride at surviving or something. Obviously not.

He should've known it was a naive idea, left over from when life was simple. From when _he'd_ been simple.

He could picture the leaders of Shinra laughing at him all those years ago, thinking 'Just point Fair at target and tell him they're bad guys. He doesn't ask questions.' And he hadn't.

Why are we invading Wutai? Why do so many of the mediocre SOLDIER recruits disappear and where do they go? Why does Shinra let Hojo get away with so much? What good is Shinra for the world? How can it be good when it causes such misery? How can he ever be a hero when he contributed to it all?

Those questions he didn't ask.

The climb into the debris pile passed mostly without any conversation between them. Zack was surprised to see so many worn paths through the debris.

"Salvagers mostly," Cloud said. "Looking for metal." Cloud explained that Sector 8 had been set up as a manufacturing area, before Shinra'd moved everything to the upper plate. "Some enterprising groups went in, started up the smaller factories, and suddenly there's a buyer for all the scrap metal and broken glass."

That sounded cool. "What do they make?"

Cloud shrugged. "Housing stuff – support beams and roofing. Windows. Nothing fancy."

"I suppose if they got too ambitious Shinra would shut them down."

Cloud hummed agreement.

Deza gave a sharp wark and Cloud was immediately alert, which meant Zack went on alert too. All he could hear was wind, a little, and the sound of small pebbles rolling downhill. They listened, but whatever had set Deza off never came any closer.

More ups, more downs – more huge girders pointing up at the sky and rusting. They rounded another jagged slab of concrete.

"That's not good." Cloud's said quietly. He swung his leg over Deza's head and dropped lightly to the ground. Zack tried to do the same, but his legs seemed to be mostly numb.

He was spared the humiliation of asking for help when Cloud whistled to his green and Deza crouched. Zack climbed off stiffly and tried to subtly shake feeling back into his legs.

"He's a good animal," he said. "Well trained."

Cloud looked away from the gorge he was staring at. "Smart," he said. "If given a choice, pick a smart one."

Not that Zack had any intention of going near a chocobo in the future, but he nodded at the advice. It was the same with SOLDIER candidates. Smart ones learned how to compensate for their physical weaknesses. Dumb ones…. Refused to see the rot until they were eyeball deep in a tank of mako.

Zack sighed and tried to let the bitterness go. They had problems right now, right here, and he should help.

"What's the problem?" He stepped forward, looking at the gorge that cut through the path. It was a little too wide for most people to jump across, and a little too deep to make failures survivable. To fix that, there was a wide plank at the narrowest point, anchored half-heartedly on each side. It looked sturdy enough. He pointed that out to Cloud and got a head shake in return.

"Should be two," he said. "Easier to get chocobos across on two."

Zack looked down at Dezi's feet. Yup, he thought. Those are big.

"Can't he just jump across," Zack asked. "That's a thing greens can do, right?"

Cloud sighed. " _He_ can." Cloud slashed a look at their burdened pack chocobo. Wex appeared to be trying to catch dust motes.

"You didn't pick Wex for brains?" Zack smirked.

"Didn't pick him at all." Cloud sighed. "Would be easier if he wasn't carrying a truss of greens."

Zack looked at the canvas-wrapped bundle on the yellow's back. It was big, and kind of awkwardly perched. "How much does it weigh?"

"160 kilos."

"No problem then," Zack said with a bounce. "I'll carry over the freight; you worry about the bird."

Cloud gave him a dubious look. Zack grinned and stretched his arms above his head, making sure to flex his biceps.

It was obvious Cloud wasn't completely reassured but he shrugged anyway. He untied Zack's sword and switched it over to Deza. Zack's fingers twitched with the need to take it, to hold it. To feel its familiar weight.

Oblivious, Cloud took his supply box off Wex next. It was a largish, insulated carrier with handles. "Take this over first?"

Why not? It would be a warm-up for the larger bundle.

The handles were cold when Zack touched them. He wasn't expecting it, so he jumped. Cloud, of course, saw it and smirked.

"Got a mild Blizzard spell on it," Cloud said. "Keeps the food cold." Zack nodded, trying to gather his dignity back around him. This time when he touched the handles, he didn't flinch.

The board creaked a bit under his weight but didn't bend. He found a flat spot on the other side and set the carrier down. He rubbed his hands together and bounced a little to dispel the lingering cold.

Despite Cloud's assurances that he was doing good for someone who'd been "mostly dead" just a day ago, Zack couldn't help but be concerned. He'd been hurt in battle before and it hadn't taken more than a couple potions or a Curaga for him to be bouncing back to his feet. Cloud had been casting Cura on him intermittently all morning, and at no time had Zack felt like he hadn't needed it.

Then again, he thought as he released more mangled bullets from his pants, his body was still ejecting metal, so no wonder he still didn't feel one hundred percent healed. He gave another small bounce, and this time he didn't jingle.

Cloud was guiding Deza over the board. The green was a sure-footed animal, but even Zack could see how carefully he was placing his feet. When Deza was finally on solid ground, he fluffed out his feathers in relief.

Zack thought it was relief. What the hells did he know about chocobo feelings?

On the other side of the gorge, Wex warbled unhappily. The yellow pulled against his lead rein, but Cloud had tied him off on an outcropping of rebar. He wasn't going anywhere.

Zack ignored the board on the way back and just jumped over the gorge. The jump and landing were both smooth, easy, and reassuring.

Cloud, on the other hand, used the board. He didn't do anything flashy, he just walked as if he was on a sidewalk in the upper city. In an odd way, it was just as impressive as Zack's lofty jump – a surety in his physical abilities that reminded Zack a little of Sephiroth… From when he'd been SOLDIER, and before he'd turned evil and wiped out a whole village.

Zack's competent rescuer managed to get Wex to crouch, though the yellow warked repeatedly as if asking if Cloud was _sure_ this is what he wanted Wex to do. Cloud gave him a reassuring pat. The low height made it easy for them to untie the bundle of greens. Cloud held Wex's head when Zack moved to the rear, positioning himself at the best angle to lift the cargo.

160 kilos.

He could do this…

And he did.

Bending as if for a squat, Zack wrapped his arms around it, getting extra grip from the rope wrapped around it like a net. When he stood up, the heavy bundle didn't slow him even a little. When he took a couple steps with it, his legs didn't shake, his arms didn't cramp. It was as if yesterday hadn't happened.

Finally!

Zack let out a relieved breath. He aimed for the board. Turned out, he couldn't see in front of him very well.

"Maybe two paces ahead of you, and half step right," Cloud said. Zack obediently adjusted his feet sideways. Then he took those two paces, not surprised that Cloud's estimate had been dead on. Between Cloud's soft direction and him being careful, Zack made it across without incident – and without feeling exhausted.

He kind of wanted to keep going, walk the whole rest of the way to Sector 6 carrying the damn thing, just because he could. Instead, he set it down next to the supply box and turned to wait for Cloud to lead the yellow over.

Because of Wex's nervousness, Cloud walked backward onto the board. He kept up a stream of soft praise and chatter that even Zack's enhanced hearing had a hard time picking up. Zack kept his eyes on Cloud's feet, giving the guy the same kind of help that Cloud had given him. It was the kind of teamwork Zack hadn't felt since… Since before Modeoheim.

Cloud was nearly all the way over, and Zack was just about to relax, when something spooked the yellow chocobo. The thing gave a little hop – just a tiny one, but it was enough for Wex to lose his footing on the board. Cloud reached out to steady Wex, but Zack knew it would be useless. The chocobo would pull Cloud down into the gorge.

He leapt from where he was, not even a run up. He twisted in mid-air, landing so that he was facing the pair, and then he shot forward. He pushed the bird and grabbed Cloud and they all landed on the far side of the gorge in a startled pile.

With an unhappy kweh, Wex jumped up only to hide behind Deza who made angry noises on the yellow's behalf.

Zack stayed were he was, letting his brain catch up with his body.

"Get off."

And his body said that the ground under him was warm and bumpy… And staring at him with shining blue eyes.

Zack frowned. "You have mako eyes!"

Cloud's eyebrows came down and his stare turned into a glare. He brought his arms up and managed to push Zack off.

He climbed to his feet and stalked over to the chocobos.

"Cloud," Zack demanded the guy's attention. "You said you didn't get into SOLDIER."

Cloud kept silent. He took some fancy greens out of his supply box and fed them to the agitated birds. His voice was soft, but that was the only thing about him that didn't radiate tension.

Zack softened his voice. "Cloud, what happened?"

A quick glance in his direction. A couple more perfunctory pets. Then Cloud's shoulders dropped. "Exposed," he said. "Deliberately. As an experiment." He gave Zack another look. "Should've known when my squad was made up of guys who'd been exposed in the past – childhood accidents and such."

Cloud ran a hand down Wex's neck. He wasn't finished, Zack knew. He was just building up courage. "Took me a year to recover. When I woke up, half my squad'd disappeared from medical. Never saw them again."

Zack couldn't look at the guy. He let himself collapse and lifted his forearm to cover his eyes. He wanted to scream – at Shinra, the world, his past…

"That what happened to you?" Cloud asked quietly. "Experiments?" He didn't need to speak loudly. Zack could still hear him. He could hear the chocobo's trilling purr as it relaxed. He could hear noises from Midgar. They were faint, but truck horns and shift change alarms weren't meant to be quiet.

He could also hear Cloud waiting.

"Sorta," Zack finally said. "Maybe a little more intense." Hojo had tortured him – to make him more "susceptible" but really, it was revenge for having killed Sephiroth. Plus Hojo was just a sick fuck anyway.

Again, Cloud let the silence stretch, but Zack had done enough talking about it. He got to his feet. "Ready to put this stuff back on so we can mosey?"

Thankfully, Cloud wasn't stupid, and he wasn't cruel. He let the subject drop.

It didn't take long for them to have the chocobos repacked, and for all of them to be back on the road. Like Cloud had said, they wanted to be under the plate before dark.

.o0|0o.

Far away and high up, President Shinra smoked a cigar as he stared over the city that he had built – the jewel in the empire he had created.

According to the reports, something was stirring in the world. Normally stable mako sources were fluctuating. The strength of the liquid halving then quadrupling at random intervals. Levels rising and falling unpredictably.

Was this the moment predicted by the Ancients?

He didn't look at the hard-faced man standing next to him. "Is there any unrest stirring?"

"There's always un–"Heidegger started.

President Shinra waved that away. He didn't need Heidegger to excuse his incompetence. " _Useable_ unrest."

"Not since the Turks destroyed Fuhito and Avalanche fell apart."

The president sneered. It had taken them long enough to kill that madman, and it had cost him some of his best assets. Turks mutinying! He should've given them all to Hojo.

None of that was in his voice when he responded. "Unfortunate. However, we have time to make some unrest," he said. "Encourage one of those fringe lunatic groups to organize. Use the Turks if you have to." They couldn't say no to him anymore.

"How long–"

"Two months. Maybe three," the president answered. "We need to be ready to move forward by then."

From the corner of his eye, President Shinra saw Heidegger give a small bow. If the general had doubts about the plan, he kept them to himself, which was just how it should be. It was up to the board to see that his orders were obeyed. He was their emperor, after all.

He looked out over the city he ruled – his soon-to-be-obsolete creation.

He puffed his cigar.

He couldn't wait to leave it.


	3. Hive of Scum and Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud and Zack arrive at civilization. Well, at Wall Market, but that's close to civilized. Cloud has some ideas on how Zack can disguise himself.

Before they could get going, they had to calm down Wex. Luckily, he wasn't the smartest bird on Terra, so all it took was a handful of gysahl greens and a few soothing pets.

Zack's SOLDIER strength made loading everything just as easy. Zack was obviously feeling better physically. Enough that he decided to run beside the chocobos carrying his sword rather than climb on behind Cloud.

Cloud tried not to be disappointed. Though he knew nothing would come of it, Cloud had enjoyed having the big body next to his – the smell of another human and the warmth of arms wrapped around him. Now he just felt kinda cold.

Even the endless chatter had stopped. Probably because both of them were feeling raw, thinking of what their last conversation had revealed.

Cloud wasn't surprised the SOLDIER had been experimented on. He wasn't surprised, but he _was_ furious with Shinra again, like he hadn't been in years: Zack Fair had been one of the good guys.

SOLDIERs had always had the reputation of being more than a little crazy – like, psychotically, pathologically crazy. Rhapsodos had gone around quoting that stupid play demanding that every grunt he worked with talk with him about it or get some dogshit punishment. Sephiroth had been a scary fuck even before he destroyed Nibelheim. Sebastian had been a racist asshole, going to the undercity and beating up Wutaian refugees in their businesses when they didn't speak Common without an accent.

Maybe those were extreme examples, but there was no denying that SOLDIERs had been Shinra's bully boys, beating Wutai into submission, beating Fort Condor and Corel. The blunt force Shinra used to bend the world to its will. And as far as anyone knew, they'd enjoyed being Shinra's hammer.

Zack Fair, however, had built up a reputation as something different.

Anyone who'd done a mission with him talked about how cheerful and friendly he'd been. He'd talked to the regular grunts, giving them combat advice and asking them questions about their lives. (Though it seemed the man would talk to a cactuar if it were the only thing around).

Cloud knew he'd done work under the plate as well, clearing out monsters and such. It hadn't been required and Cloud hadn't heard of any other SOLDIERs doing it, but Zack had. Because Zack had believed the hype about SOLDIERs being heroes.

Then he'd become inconvenient to Shinra. Like Cloud and his squad mates, and the citizens of Nibelheim, the company had buried Zack Fair alive.

Sometimes, Cloud found himself agreeing with Barret Wallace about what should happen to Shinra, and he didn't like it.

"Up ahead, we cut right and go up," he said to Zack. "It'll take us over the old expressway, and from there we go down to the 6-7 Road." Zack nodded. "There might be bandits," Cloud warned. "They live in the tunnel. Come up to rob and be assholes."

Zack just grinned. "They won't be expecting us!"

Well, Cloud thought, they might be expecting _him_ , but they probably wouldn't expect a SOLDIER First.

"Lot of them report to Don Corneo or to someone who reports to Corneo. If they see you…"

That got rid of Zack's smile. If they encountered bandits, they'd have to kill them.

Cloud usually didn't care if he killed the bandits he encountered – they'd attacked him after all. This time he disliked that the idea of it made Zack grim. "It's early," he said in reassurance. "Might not be out."

Zack nodded, but he still swung his huge blade a couple times, warming up just in case.

In the end, the only thing they encountered was a lone ringmaw that thought they looked like dinner. Even without ice materia, Zack had it down with only a couple thrusts. "You want anything from it?"

Cloud shook his head.

They made good time. When they reached the top of the tunnel, Wall Market was in view. Built close to the central pillar, it was always dark enough there for Wall Market's lights to shine. Don Corneo's gaudy mansion stood out, placed as it was, several layers higher than the rest of the city.

"It's… very bright," Zack said.

"Before Shinra gave up on building the undercity, there were thousands of workers living down here. As they moved around the sectors, the entertainers and merchants moved with them. They were starting on Sector 6 when the plate fell." He jerked his chin up, and they both looked up. Even as high at it was, it was easy to see the heavy metal beams sticking out from the sides of the unfinished plate floor. Like a piece of woven cloth that was forever halfway undone.

"Shinra stopped construction, pulled all the workers out. The merchants and entertainers just stayed. "

The path left the highest part of the ridge but Corneo's mansion was still visible. It would be visible halfway to Sector 5. An obvious and useful landmark.

"When we get to the track down to the road, you stay up here, hidden," Cloud said. "I'll turn in the cargo and my salvage – do it after every run. Then I'll head south out of Wall Market."

"And me?" Zack asked.

"Stay up here," he repeated. "Circle south around the market 'til you reach the lake. Wait up top 'til I arrive."

"Sounds good."

Zack's easy agreement was a relief. Chocobo Sam's workers guarded the entrance from Sector 7, while Madame M had people watching the road to Sector 5. It would've been hard to sneak the SOLDIER First past one group, let alone both.

They moved Cloud's supply box over to Deza. Sam would probably guess Cloud had let the yellow carry his personal stuff, but he wouldn't know for sure, and what Sam didn't know, he couldn't charge for.

Cloud loaned Zack the healing materia to use in case he encountered something harder to deal with than a ringmaw. Then they were done. Ready to part.

With a jaunty wave, Zack bounded over a slab of reinforced concrete and was gone from sight. Cloud fought the urge to call the SOLDIER back. He'd be safe enough on the ridge, Cloud told himself. Cloud told himself that, but he didn't fully believe it.

However, his belief had nothing to do with anything, and he forced himself to continue to the 6-7 Road.

He made sure the road was clear before going down those last exposed metres. On the wide, flat surface of the 6-7 Road, Cloud clicked Deza into a faster pace. He resisted the urge to look up at the ridge. Just because Cloud had spent the last 24 hours healing the man, didn't make Zack a helpless baby

As he got closer to Wall Market, it was easier to hear the crowds and the music and the endless, vibrant noise that made up the place.

It was familiar to Cloud. He'd spent his first years out of the military in Wall Market's insulated environment. Then as now, he'd earned money doing odd jobs. Sure, Wall Market had had some seedy elements, but they hadn't bothered Cloud and Cloud hadn't bothered them, (unless he'd been hired to bodyguard someone they wanted to rob). It had been a good time for him, and he'd healed a lot, mentally and physically.

Then Don Corneo had moved in, wanting to control all of Wall Markets most famous attractions. He'd tried to recruit Cloud – forcibly. Cloud's response had been quick, violent, and bloody. It took a year before it was safe for him to travel in Sector 6 again. Two, before he could go into the central area without one of Corneo's people trying to kill him.

It was good, though, that he'd left. The move to Sector 7 had been one of the best things to have happened to Cloud. His business thrived, enough that he occasionally had to hire someone to fulfill all the contracts. He'd met up with Tifa – Tifa Lockhart, star of his childhood dreams. They weren't children now, of course. They'd both survived contact with Shinra after all...

Cloud's mind stopped.

Tifa had probably seen Zack in Nibelheim. She had to have – she said she'd been the expedition's local guide.

Would she try to kill Zack if they met?

It was entirely possible. Her rage at Shinra was greater than anything Cloud felt – like a lit match next to a bonfire. And now that she'd joined with Wallace….

Cloud reassured himself that she probably wouldn't succeed in killing Zack. At least, not before Cloud had the chance to break them up.

Maybe he'd give them each a heads up about the other before they met in person.

One last bend in the road before it widened into Chocobo Sam's stable and staging yard. It had been a quarter its current size when Cloud first came down to the ground floor, but Sam had slowly and steadily shifted the garbage and debris as his business had grown. He now had regular scheduled runs through Sectors 5, 6 and 7, and an active stable of nearly thirty birds.

As he came up to the main building Sam sauntered out. "Yer late!"

The man's voice was low and growly, and he'd retained the accent of his hometown not far from Chocobo Farm. Sam also maintained a version of its attire. From the decorated Stetson he wore on his head, to the boots made of dual horn hide, everything about Chocobo Sam screamed his roots as a simple plainsman.

It was a lie, of course.

Sam was one of Don Corneo's Trio, and that wasn't a position a simple man survived for long. His success depended on keeping Corneo appeased, so Sam paid a portion of all his earnings to Corneo, negotiating the percentage down by being a part of Corneo's smuggling ring and a conduit for Corneo's "brides". Cloud never forgot that Chocobo Sam was not a good person.

Cloud stayed on Deza, looking down on the man. "Contract said today."

Sam smirked. "Yer always a day early, so 'ccording to history, yer late."

Cloud just shook his head. "Need to manage expectations better," he said before jumping off Deza.

"Who does?" Sam asked his back. "You 'r me?"

Cloud took Deza's rein and led the way to Sam's main stable. "Billy put the whole truss of greens in one bundle," he said. "One bundle, one preservation spell."

Sam nodded, "That's what I paid fer."

"Next time, break the bundles up," Cloud said. "I couldn't unload by myself, so Wex's been carrying them for four days, all hours."

"Hadn't thought of that," Sam said with a frown. Cloud nodded, accepting the statement. Sam did care about the birds he owned, (probably more than he cared about the people he employed) but he didn't do long haul. It wouldn't have occurred to him that there'd be nobody with Cloud to help unload the birds at night.

They'd reached the feed room lift, and Sam whistled for a couple of his boys to come over and help with the cargo.

"He's a good bird; strong, sturdy and generally happy," Cloud said. "Not smart, but trainable. Ran into a couple things–"

"As you do on in the open." Sam's interruption was a way of saying that he wasn't going to pay extra for any damages Cloud had suffered.

Cloud ignored him. "Jumped the first few times, but by the end, was pretty calm about it."

"Will he work in harness?"

Cloud gently pushed the yellow's beak away from his hair. "Maybe? He's sociable. Likes being around other animals." He took his ropes from Sam's men as they untied them.

Sam snorted unhappily. "I don't do tandem rigs."

Cloud shrugged. "Still young, yah. Might grow out of it. Worth the effort to try, though."

Sam nodded. Cloud knew Sam would make his own evaluation of the yellow, but he also knew that his opinion would count.

Tiam and Randy grunted as they lifted the truss of greens. Cloud let them do the work, content to stay at Wex's head and keep him in place. He only moved when Sam took out his large hunting knife, ready to examine the cargo.

He watched Sam cut the cords, their undisturbed knots proving the load hadn't been tampered with. Next Sam lifted a corner of the canvas wrapping, breaking the preservation spell worked into the weave.

Still not content, Sam dug his hand into the kurie greens, pulling out a handful in the middle to make sure they weren't old or rotten. He even pulled them up to his face to sniff them.

"They're good," Sam declared and rose to his feet. "Let's go settle up."

Cloud took Deza with him when they went to the office building, tying him to the post there. Behind him, Wex gave a sad warble.

In Sam's office, Cloud pulled out his order slip and had Sam sign it under goods received. After he'd counted the money, he filled out the 'Paid in Full' section and gave it to Sam. For someone else, Cloud wouldn't have bothered counting. Sam, however, expected people to cheat him, just as he tried to cheat them. If he could short you a gil, he would.

In his favour, Sam never got insulted if you double-checked anything he said or did. If you caught him in a lie, he would shrug and own up, considering it just part of doing business.

They didn't shake hands once the job was concluded. Cloud just took his gil and left. They would never be friends because Sam didn't trust anyone that much.

It was a horrible way to live, as far as Cloud was concerned.

He recognized the stablehand working the carriage service, so he paid the man a gil to give Deza a good currying while he went into the Market.

Two more stops, then he'd head south to meet Zack.

First stop was selling his container of salvaged monster parts to the pharmacist. Paul's store was just inside the main entrance. It had a bright white moogle outside the door, waving a paw to welcome everyone in. A tinkly bell rang when the door opened, and the interior was decorated with bamboo and soothing colours. It was, Cloud always thought, a look entirely out of place in Corneo's Wall Market.

Paul came through the curtain to the back area. "Can I help you?" he said before actually looking. "Cloud! I expected you yesterday."

"Contract was for today," he repeated.

"Yeah, still…"

Cloud just stared at him until Paul shrugged a half-hearted apology.

Cloud lifted his cold box. "Got a few things you might like."

Paul's smile widened. "I knew you would! Let's have a look."

The pharmacist bought everything as Cloud had known he would. After all, he'd only salvaged what could be turned into antidotes for food poisoning, indigestion, and heart burn, plus the other things people could catch while visiting Wall Market.

What took the time was haggling over the price.

Paul was a decent guy; he just enjoyed haggling. Always tried to get a little extra for less than it was worth. Since he _was_ a good alchemist, Cloud usually gave him something extra in exchange for a discount on potions and ethers.

"Do you have time to run some prescriptions around?" Paul asked.

Cloud shook his head. "Gotta couple more errands then sleep." When Cloud left the pharmacy, Paul shook his hand and wished him a pleasant evening. Cloud also left with three potions and an ether. A somewhat better stock level than he'd left Midgar with.

Out the door he turned right, heading deeper into the market. The corridor – it wasn't wide enough to be a lane – was jammed with people and smelled of dumplings and beer. Cloud kept his hand close to his money, but the local pickpockets knew him well enough to keep clear.

The corridor ended in a T-intersection. Another right would take him to the stairs down to The Honeybee Inn. He'd originally planned to end his journey there, see if Andi had time to spare for an old friend, but now he turned left. Second shop in sold stupid tourist shit and gods-awful clothing.

He grinned.

Cloud picked a garish T-shirt a size larger than his own, and a pair of hideous cargo shorts. He even found socks and a cringe-worthy pair of boxers that said RELEASE THE CRACKEN across the ass. At the counter, he grabbed a cap and sunglasses so Zack could cover his very distinctive hair and eyes.

The haggling this time was more serious – tourist shit was ridiculously overpriced – but considering the starting price of all of it, Cloud thought he got a pretty good deal.

When Cloud passed the dumpling shop again, it smelled really, really, good, so he made one final stop and picked up a variety pack of two dozen. He ate one on his way back to Deza, and then one more while he stuffed his purchases into the saddlebags. Then he resolutely packed the rest away in the supply box.

He led Deza through the gate of Wall Market. Originally, there'd only been the one entrance, and the 6-7 Road had run all the way to Sector 5. A pile of debris had slid down off the expressway tunnel, cutting the road in half, and instead of clearing it, Corneo had torn down a section of the south wall. Now, unless they wanted to risk their lives in the collapsed expressway, everybody had to go through Wall Market.

Corneo hadn't made the gap very big, however, so all the people were bunched up, gawking. Deza didn't like crowds, and the crowds didn't like Deza, but he was half a tonne of sharp-beaked bird, so the crowd mostly got out of his way.

Eventually Cloud emerged onto the mostly empty 5-6 Road and he started to run. The green gave a happy wark and jogged easily beside him. It didn't take long to reach the turn off to the lake, and once there, it didn't take long for Zack to drop onto the road beside him.

"Everything okay," Cloud asked.

Zack nodded. "Nothing I couldn't handle. You?"

"Got paid," Cloud answered. He jerked his head towards the lake, leading the way in where they'd have a little protection from the eyes of passing traffic. "Got supper, too."

"You did? Awesome!" Zack said with a happy bounce. "Will it kill me? 'Cause I've heard stories about the food down here. That it's actually rat. I can't say I believe it." He rattled on as Cloud led the way down the short path. As planned, it was empty – too late for families and too early for drunken parties.

Deza, like a lot of green chocobos, didn't like large open bodies of water. When Cloud ordered him to sit close to the path, he did so happily and turned his head away from the lake. Cloud figured the bird was trying to pretend it didn't exist.

"Got you some clothes," he said to Zack. "No holes, no blood. We'll toss the rest."

Zack's eyebrows went down. "Get rid of the pants," he said blankly.

"People'll remember 'em and you in 'em," Cloud explained. "Plus, your girl might be upset to see so many bullet holes where your body was supposed to be."

Zack put a finger into one of the few solitary holes. It lined up perfectly with his hip bone. "I suppose so."

"Should also cut your hair."

Zack slapped a shocked hand over his heart. "Take that back!"

Cloud smiled. "Think you'll like what I picked for you."

"Oooo. Lemme see!" Zack bounced.

Cloud shook his head. "Bathe first. Then clothes. Then food."

Zack wilted. "You're so mean."

Unsurprisingly, Zack was completely unselfconscious about stripping in front of Cloud. Shinra military – any branch – trained the modesty out of you. First it was shared quarters and shared showers. Then it was medical exams, and the science department wanted to see and measure everything. Then, of course, there was Zack's four years as an experiment in a lab. Cloud doubted he'd been given any privacy then.

Feeling somewhat guilty for staring, Cloud turned his back. It wasn't much, but he tried.

As a reward, Zack tossed his crusty (and smelly) tank top at Cloud and hit him in the back of the head. Cloud let Zack hear his put-upon sigh. He didn't need to turn around to see Zack's grin.

"Got any shampoo in that bag of tricks of yours?"

Cloud did. He got it out of his saddlebag and walked it over to where Zack was removing his boots. "You know, I've had these boots since Nibelheim, and they're still in pretty good shape…."

Cloud barely heard him. There was a lot of bare (if blood-covered) muscle on display, but one thing stood out. "They're all gone. Not even scars."

Zack glanced down at his chest. "Yeah. Not a one."

"But…" That wasn't possible. SOLDIERs healed faster than normal people, yah, but they still _scarred_.

"Haven't got a new one since Hojo's lab." Zack's reached up and rubbed absently at a thin white line on his cheek.

"'s fucked up."

Zack's laugh wasn't happy. " _Seriously_ fucked up. I know that Hojo injected me with more than just mako and Sephiroth didn't scar. Neither did Genesis or Angeal. Until... Until they were degrading."

"Worried you'll degrade, or that you'll turn into one of them?" Cloud asked.

"Ah, fuck, Cloud. That's the question, isn't it." Zack turned his face up to the sky. It would be visible through the gap in the Sector 6 plate. "They were all crazy in the end. What if…" It was a legitimate fear, given everything Zack had told him.

Cloud placed a reassuring hand on Zack's bare shoulder, ignoring the feel of smooth, strong muscle. "If you start setting fire to a village, I promise to stop you."

Zack's laugh was horrified, but still happier than before. "You'll _try_ , mountain boy."

Cloud shrugged. "Try not to go crazy, and we'll never have to find out.

Zack's grin was blinding. "Maybe I'll turn into a cat," he said, kneeling to unzip his boots. "That would be cool. I'd just lay around in the sun and people will feed me. I could stick my tongue out at everyone who ever called me 'puppy'. Oooh!" he straightened, "I could live with Aerith, and she could pet me! That would be nice…" His eyes fogged.

Cloud gave him a swat. "Focus."

"Oh, I'm _focused_ ," Zack leered.

With his boots finally removed, it didn't take Zack long to strip out of the rest of his clothes. He actually hesitated before taking off his pants, so Cloud turned to the side, pretending to watch the entrance.

The trouser legs wrapped around his head.

When Cloud turned to him with a growl, Zack cut him off. "You're a good guy, Cloud," he said seriously. "I'm glad I met you. Again."

Then he sprinted to the end of the dock and cannon balled in.

"Fucking _hells_! This water's _freezing_!" Zack screeched out more colourful curses and all Cloud could do was laugh.

While Zack splashed and spluttered, Cloud hunted down some rocks heavy enough to use as weights. When he got back, Zack was already out of the lake, still cursing, but clean.

Cloud tossed the guy a towel, and then pulled out the shopping bag. "I thought of you when I picked these," Cloud said solemnly. "I hope you like them."

With an eager look, Zack opened the bag. The first thing he pulled out was the T-shirt. Neon pinks and yellows and greens collided in a frenzy of splotches. Zack gazed at it in awe. "Fuck me, I'm blind."

Cloud shrugged. "People'll remember the shirt, not the face."

Zack switched his gaze to Cloud. "It's _awesome._ I love it!" A part of Cloud relaxed. It was joke that could've gone horribly wrong.

"Underpants, too."

Zack's face brightened. "Did you _really_? Oh man, how bad are they?" He dug through the bag until he found the orange and brown boxers. " 'Release the cracken!'," Zack chortled. "Hells yah. I did enough squats for my butt to be a weapon."

"Those are the best two," Cloud admitted. "The hat just advertises the Coliseum."

Zack pulled out the ball cap, looked at the swollen embroidered moogle with the flaming red eyes. "What the hells is this?"

"Mr Cuddlesworth. It explodes," Cloud explained. "People can buy them then throw them into the pit during the match if they think it's not exciting enough." Zack's jaw dropped.

"As a fighter, you get paid more if you let them."

"Personal experience?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

Cloud smiled a little. "Good money. Great way to level materia."

"Midgar is seriously messed up, top _and_ bottom."

"Got you one more thing," Cloud reached into one of his pant pockets. He took out the strip of three condoms and tossed it at Zack. "Might need these when you catch up with your girl."

For someone so tanned, Zack's blush was easily visible. He stuttered and stammered and glowed like an alarm. Cloud just laughed at him and didn't let him give them back.

They sat on the dock, feet dangling over the water and ate the dumplings, watching the cap slowly sink into the water. Behind them, Deza dozed. Occasionally, the chocobo would make a weird snoring noise that could probably scare a fang, and sometimes someone would wander by on their way to somewhere else, but mostly it was peaceful. The sun emerged from above the plate, moving slowly towards the horizon. A fish jumped out of the water.

"How much farther to Sector 5?" Zack asked.

"Not far. Twenty minutes fast walk."

"And to the church? Beyond the station."

"Hour above that. Maybe less?" Cloud was guessing. He'd never been beyond the train station in Sector 5. Nobody lived out there; nobody worked out there. The only reason Sector 5 had a station was Shinra had planned to make it industrial, build their car batteries and cell phones. Like most their projects under the plate, they'd stopped once they'd dug up everything that had been there before, and all the green was gone.

Zack threw the last of his steam bun into his mouth. He stood up and brushed the dirt off his cargo shorts with its many (intact) pockets. "Well, then. Let's mosey."

This time they both walked. And they talked a little more. Zack waved his monster sword around, demonstrating moves. He didn't mention anything that he'd done while in SOLDIER and Cloud didn't ask.

He could see the sign for Sam's chocobo stop up ahead. Cloud was aware that he might never see the former SOLDIER again. The undercity was too big, too spread out, and if Zack stayed with his girl in Sector 5…

"I've enjoyed travelling with you," Cloud said instead of 'I'll miss you'.

"Yeah," Zack answered. "We should do it again. I mean, if I'm going to stay down here, I'll need work." He stopped. "Fuck. What I mean is, I'll… I'll need _friends_. People who know what I was and don't care and won't rat me out to Shinra."

Could it be that easy, Cloud wondered? But since it was exactly what he wanted, he just smiled and nodded. They just had to choose to make it that simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's lovely artwork for this now, created by theskycriestoo [on Twitter.](https://twitter.com/theskycriestoo/status/1306318761448878084) They were a joy to work with!
> 
> This is Zack in his new clothes. (Just a little different from a SOLDIER First uniform.)  
> [](http://www.mediafire.com/view/eg66fo44vv1xcyw/touristcommwowatermark.png/file)


	4. Honey, I'm Home?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zack and Cloud arrive at Sector 5. There is a reunion (not the nasty one), and Zack's miraculous escape is discovered by Shinra.

Zack couldn't believe he'd said that to Cloud. He'd only known the guy for… Well, Modeoheim didn't count since that was six years ago. And up until breakfast this morning didn't count either, because he'd been unconscious for all of it. So that was less than a day.

But Zack hadn't been lying. He would need friends, people he could trust. People who wouldn't force him to kill them.

Yeah. That seemed really important right now.

The road to Sector 5 had been carved through a mountain of rubble. The sides of it almost touched at one point. Cloud stabled Deza at the chocobo carriage stand that hadn't been there last time Zack had been down here. Neither had most of the buildings at this end of town.

They walked through the tunnel into a shantytown that was built of dirt and stubbornness more than anything else.

Aerith's home.

"There's a weaponsmith here," Cloud said as they walked around a crowd gathered in a small squarish space. "Makes sheaths and harnesses. Supposed to be decent."

"Yeah? I wonder how much he charges." Zack asked, even as he looked around. This part of Sector 5 was more like it had been before, but it was more crowded than Zack remembered. There were more buildings, all looking a lot sturdier than the ones in his memories.

Cloud tapped him on the arm and jerked his chin. At the top of a short path a small caravan was parked. There was an old guy with a cane sitting in a chair to one side, and Zack hoped that wasn't the weaponsmith.

It wasn't.

The guy at the window was older, but not ancient. He had spritely eyes and a quick smile. "How can I help you boys today?" He was hard to hear over the billboard blaring the news out over the crowd of watchers.

"When did they install that?" Zack asked, pointing at the huge screen.

"Oh, dunno. Maybe three, four years ago?" The weaponsmith rubbed his chin. "Let's us know what's going on in the world."

"Feeds everyone Shinra's propaganda, he means," Cloud said.

"Well, now, it's true you shouldn't trust everything you see on the screen, but they don't mean us any harm." Zack looked at Cloud, who had the same 'can you believe this guy' look that Zack was sure he was wearing.

"I hear you can make sword harnesses," Zack said, smile wide.

The guy nodded. "Sure can. In fact, I have some in stock." He turned to fetch them.

Zack reached out a hand to stop him. "This'll have to be custom."

"Well, sure. Can do that," he nodded. "You want a special kind of hide, is that it?"

"Actually," Zack said. "It's for this." He lifted Galatine into view.

The weaponsmith reared back. "Woah, Nellie! That's a big one. That's not gonna fit on the hip, is it."

"I'm looking for an open back harness?" Zack said. "With a magnetic pad so I can just…" He twirled Galatine a couple times before swinging it over his shoulder, the movement so ingrained that he nearly let go of the hilt out of habit.

"Oh yeah!" the guy nodded, back to stroking his chin. "I've made things like that afore. For a smaller blade though. Even have one in stock, if you want me to get it…"

"How much for new?" Cloud asked.

"Well, sure. What kind of hide do you want?" the guy responded. "I've got dual horn, of course, but I also got belzicue and humbaba, or death claw – that's a nice hide. I've even got some drake skin…"

Again, Zack looked at Cloud, but the guy just crossed his arms and left it up to him. Belzicue hide was too thin. The drake would be nice – durable as Bahamut's balls, but also nice to look at. It would also be as costly as Shiva's kiss.

"How much for drake hide?" Zack asked.

"Eight hundred gil. Can't say fairer than that."

Zack swallowed. He'd had some potions and things with him when he'd been attacked. He could sell those. If they were even still up there on the ridge. Surely Cloud would've told him if he'd found his bag….

He opened his mouth to as for the dual horn – cheapest leather in the world.

Cloud spoke first. "Three hundred. We provide the skin."

Zack kept his face pleasant, but he gave Cloud a knock with his elbow. Cloud stepped on his foot.

"Well, I'll have to take a look at it first. Can't guarantee its condition since it's not from my stock."

"It'll work. Three hundred, you keep the extra. _If_ the workmanship is right."

Zack held up his hands. "Okay, woah. This is ridiculous. You can't just promise to get _drake_ hide, and then use it for my harness. It's worth a lot more than that." Cloud shrugged. Zack put his hands on his hips. "Okay then, Mr Blasé, where the hells are you going to find one? It's not like they're popping out of the ground like boundfats.

The weaponsmith spoke up. "Well, you know, there's often Rusty drakes in the old scrapyard just outside of town."

Cloud smirked. "See. A sign."

Argh! Zack scrubbed his hair. Rusty drakes weren't _bad_. If you had a _gun_! He shook his head. "No." He shook his head. "It's real kind of you, but you'll get yourself killed!"

Cloud clapped him on the shoulder. "That's why you gonna help me."

He didn't wait for Zack to agree. He turned to the weaponsmith. "You have one for a smaller sword," he said. "You rent it?"

When they left the shop, Cloud was carrying Galatine – and rather easily, so he'd probably been more than "mildly exposed" to mako – while Zack unbuckled and twisted the leather straps until he was pretty sure he knew how to put on the rig.

"Sector 7 gets Cerulean drakes coming out of the train graveyard," Cloud said once they were clear. "Often a reward to clear them out – gil and potions, depending. Be easier with two."

"I knew it!" Zack grinned. "You _do_ want to keep me around."

Zack finally pulled the rig on. Then it was buckle, tighten and bounce until it was sitting just right.

"Does this look funny over a T-shirt? Well, I mean… It looks a little obvious over _this_ T-shirt, right?" Cloud hummed agreement and handed Zack his sword.

The harness was second or even more-hand, which meant the leather was softer and more pliable than if it had been new. It also meant that it was stretched in weird places. Zack mounted and removed the blade, making further adjustments as the movement revealed parts that were too loose or too tight. He did some squats, and some bends…

Cloud suddenly stepped into view. "Here. Slide this over the harness."

Zack _did not_ jump, despite what the person beside him said.

His rescuer was holding a puke-green, short-sleeve, button-up shirt. "Seriously?" Zack asked.

"Matches the T-shirt."

When Zack slid it on, he had to admit that the colours did look kinda good together.

"Zack! Is that you?" It was a young voice calling.

Zack turned and saw a boy wearing a red scarf around his neck coming towards them. He had unremarkable brown hair, and brown eyes.

"It _is_ you!" The cracking voice said the boy was just hitting puberty, so Zack tried to picture him as he would've been five years ago…

"It's me, Oates!"

Still nothing.

"Your wallet, remember? Your first date with Aerith?"

"Oh, yeah!" The day he'd met Aerith.

He'd fallen through the roof of the church and she'd been so pretty. And kind. He'd asked her for a date, never expecting she'd say yes. They'd walked, and talked, and she'd been teasing, but sweet. By the time they'd reached the market area in Sector 5 he'd been completely gone on her. He'd tried to impress her, but the first thing to happen was Oates stole his wallet, and Aerith laughed at him about it.

It had taken a while, but Zack had finally managed to catch the kid, only to learn Oates had stolen it because his mom was sick. Nothing else to do but to get Oates' own wallet back – covered in bug guts, but with all the gil still in it.

Aerith had looked so happy when he'd done that…

"I remember now. How's your mom?"

The excitement left the boy's face. "She died a couple years ago."

"Shit, I'm sorry!" Zack said. "But you look like you're doing okay – not thieving on the streets, anyway."

"I'm doing fine, honestly. Aerith got me a place at Leaf House. It's the orphanage here. They're all pretty nice." He was smiling when he said it, and his eyes were clear, so Zack smiled back.

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Oh man! Wait 'til Aerith sees you!" the boy said, giving a little jump. "Everyone else thought you were dead, but not Aerith."

"She never gave up, huh. That's um…" Zack swallowed. "Do you know where she is? I need… I mean, I'd like to… talk to her."

"She should be coming back from the station," Oates answered. "She goes up most days, selling flowers."

Zack couldn't help his grin. "She does? That's… It's…." Wonderful. She was doing it! Going up to the plate, under the open sky – kinda open. Doing it all without him. Because he hadn't been there like he promised…

Oh fuck.

He hadn't kept any of his promises.

"Zack? Are you sick?"

"Kid, find Aerith. Let her know Zack's back, but _quietly_ , yah?"

"Sure, mister."

All the voices were faint. He couldn't breathe. His chest… Fuck.

"Is he okay?"

Cloud steered him… someplace. Away from the crowds because suddenly it was quieter. Or maybe his heartbeat had just gotten louder.

Stupid fuck, Zack told himself. Don't fall apart now!

He forced himself to match his breathing to some tune that was playing. All the while, aware of Cloud standing beside him, keeping the curious at bay. Cloud was chatting with some white-haired kid with a monocle, of all things. Zack ignored them and breathed.

Once his breathing was under control, he didn't bother raising his head, just rested it on his hand. "Fuuuuck."

Cloud sat down beside him. "Headache?"

Zack thought about it. "A little. It'll pass." The pain always did. He leaned back, so he was looking at the roof of the… wherever they were sitting. Lights were coming on in the market, fighting the darkening sky. It was going to be full dark by the time Aerith made it home.

Of course, she wasn't 19 anymore, just as he wasn't 20.

Fuck. "I'm 26."

"Nobody here's gonna ask for ID if you wanna drink," Cloud replied. He held out the waterbag, so Zack took a swig.

"I was 21. And Aerith was 20 last time I saw her."

"Want me to check for grey hairs?"

Zack slammed the waterbag into Cloud's chest. "Asshole."

"Moron."

Zack tried to relax into the quieting evening, but he couldn't. "Let's go meet her." The relief he felt when Cloud just shrugged and stood up beside him was ridiculous. But he felt it just the same. "She wrote me letters while I was… Yeah."

"They let letters through?"

"Hells no," Zack snorted. "One got me while I was on the road. It mentioned that she'd been writing to me the whole time."

"One letter… While you were on the run." Cloud's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Special delivery." Zack's smile was sad, remembering the chimera with Angeal's image in its feathers. He'd have to tell Aerith that it had died.

"Where'd the other letters go?" Cloud asked. Zack didn't think Cloud cared – the guy was paying more attention to their surroundings than the conversation – but it was a decent question.

"She would've sent them to me care of SOLDIER," Zack had decided. "So Shinra has them. I wonder if they read them.

Cloud grunted in a way that indicated 'of course they have, dumb ass.'

"I mean, I guess, there's nothing _wrong_ with them having read them…" This time Cloud looked at him, brows up, and Zack had to sigh. "Yeah, I'm not so fond of the idea either, but really, what would they have found out? That we liked each other?" He shrugged. "They already knew that."

"Gives 'em leverage."

Again, Zack sighed. There really wasn't anything he could do about that either. Shinra already had leverage. Zack knew the Turks watched Aerith, and the Turks knew that Zack knew, so if they ever wanted to bring Zack in line, all they had to do was threaten to take Aerith back to Hojo.

Of course, then Zack would be forced to kill them all, even though he'd probably end of dead before he managed it. But he'd do it to keep Aerith safe from that psychopath.

"I think I'd like to kill Hojo." It wasn't angry or bitter. Just a simple statement of fact.

Cloud accepted it with a nod. "I'll help."

It made Zack laugh. He grabbed Cloud in a headlock. "You and me, buddy! We're gonna be an awesome team!"

"Zack? It's really you?"

And just like that, Zack's calm disappeared. After all these years, Aerith was right in front of him. Would she be disappointed? Angry? There were so many ways this could go wrong.

He turned to face her.

She looked beautiful.

To Zack it seemed like she glowed, even in the dim light under the plate. She was wearing a short red jacket over a white dress. On one arm she carried a basket with only a couple wilting blossoms. Did that mean she'd had a successful day selling flowers?

She looked that same and yet totally different than his memories.

She couldn't be real.

"Zack? Hell-lloo."

Beside him Cloud snorted in amusement.

"Aerith," he finally managed. "Yeah. It's me." He swallowed. It had been a long time. Maybe too long. Probably too long. "Sorry I'm late."

"Oh Zack…"

And then she was right there, right _here_. Right next to him, with her arms around him, and she was soft, and strong, and warm _and_ _real._

He barely heard Cloud taking Oates back to Sector 5. There was Aerith's breath, and his heartbeat, and the restless quiet of the undercity at night.

Like he had before in her arms, Zack cried. He cried about dying on a cliff top, for Gongaga destroyed, and five years lost. He cried for Angeal taken from him once again. He cried for Aerith and for himself. He cried for all the dreams that had been taken from him.

He cried, and Aerith cried with him.

.o0|0o.

It took an embarrassingly long time for them to stop.

And then it took even longer for Zack to let her go – he just wanted to keep standing there, with her tucked up under his chin – but predators didn't care if you hadn't seen your girl for five years. He took her hand.

He still had gloves on, but he could feel her.

They walked back to the sector gate, their steps slow. He told her… He told her everything.

Aerith eyes stayed wide in horror. "The whole village? And they just… rebuilt it?" and "But you were SOLDIER. Why would they do that to you?" and finally, "They couldn't have known. I thought Tseng was your friend!"

Zack sighed. Aerith's relationship with the Turks was odd. She tried to dodge them as often as she could, but she also treated them almost like friends. Familiarity, Zack supposed. They'd been watching her since she was a kid.

"The Turks…." Where to fucking begin with the Turks? It wasn't like he'd ever thought hard about them back then. They were just there, following orders like he had. "This just an impression I got," he said slowly, trying to dig out the memory. "I think their first loyalty is to each other. Then to the company and after that is anybody else."

"So they didn't try to save you?" Her hand tightened around his. That odd friendship again.

He tried to soften the truth. "There wasn't much they could've done about it, not without joining me in my underground cell. Hojo's got too much power inside Shinra."

"It's just…" Aerith looked away. Her jaw was clenched.

Zack stopped until she looked at him. "What?"

"I gave Tseng your letters," she spat. "Or well, whichever Turk was watching me that day."

"Ah."

"They _took_ them, said they'd deliver them, and it was all a big _lie_." Her grip was tight, her mouth was an angry line. "Rude brings me potted flowers for my garden sometimes. And Shotgun brought me a suncatcher from Mideel. But they knew. All this time, they _knew_ you weren't dead, and they did _nothing_."

"Aerith…"

She shook her head and stomped up the road to her hometown.

Zack wanted to pull her close, soothe away her anger, but he let himself be pulled behind her. They were just through the gate when Aerith stopped abruptly. Zack nearly overbalanced trying not to crash into her.

"How much do you know about me, Zack?"

"Well," he said. "What you told me, of course."

"And?"

"Before I left on that mission, Tseng told me you were special, which, you know…." He lifted a shoulder. "You had Turks watching you."

"I never told you about my mother."

"Elmyra? Sure, you did."

"No, not Elmyra. My real mother, Ifalna." Aerith took a breath. "My mother was what you call an Ancient. The last full-blooded Ancient on the planet, and Shinra kept her prisoner – kept us. But she's the one they took out of our cell everyday. She's the one…."

This time, Zack did reel Aerith in and tuck her beneath his chin. He swallowed. "I'm listening."

"When I was seven, we escaped. It was so scary. I'd never been outside the labs. It was so big, and noisy. There were so many people, but Shinra security forces shot anyway. We made it to the station, but Mom…. She'd been hit." Zack could feel her tears soaking into his shirt.

Aerith grabbed another breath. "Elmyra was at the station, waiting for her husband to come home. Mom… Mom handed me to her and asked her to take care of me. Then she ran away so that Shinra would follow her. She died. I know she did."

"So you could live," Zack said.

Aerith growled. "They should've just left us alone! They had no right to, to… keep us prisoner!" She took several sharp breaths. "I forgot that's who they work for. I won't forget again." She stepped away. "Reno!" she shouted into the night. Birds flew off and at least one four-legged creature scampered further away from the road. "Reno! You come out here right now!"

From the shadows, emerged the lanky red-haired male.

"How do you always know? We're fucking _good_ at this, yo. Yet you always know." His voice was solidly undercity, but everything else from the suit to the attitude screamed Turk.

Aerith turned to face him, body stiff with anger, hand tight around Zack's. She ignored Reno's question. "Tseng has the letters I sent to Zack. I want them back."

"Tseng doesn't take orders from us. You know that, right?"

She ignored that too. "There should be eighty-eight letters," she said. "I want them all, and if they've been _opened_ …"

"Aerith…" the Turk pleaded.

"No. I am _very_ _angry_ right now. You all _lied_ to me." Her voice cracked, but she took a quick breath and pulled her shoulders back. She was fierce and strong, and Zack couldn't take his eyes from her. "How could you?"

The guy, tough Turk or not, squirmed in embarrassed discomfort at her disappointment. "Aw, Aerith…"

She sniffed, turning away from him. "I'd like them by tomorrow. You can go now."

"You know I gotta see you to your door," the Turk said.

"I already have an escort, thank you," she said. "One I can trust _completely_." Aerith pulled Zack after her, and he followed happily. He was so fucking turned on by her, he could hardly breathe.

"Wait," the Turk said from behind them. "I recognize that sword."

"Why do you think I knew _you were_ _lying_ ," Aerith shot back. Zack just grinned and gave the Turk a wave. So much for hiding under the plate.

Zack hopped a couple steps forward until he was level with his girl – his _magnificent_ girl. "I got your final letter," he said.

"Of _course_ you did," she growled. "It's the only one I didn't give to a _Turk_."

"Until I read it, I hadn't realized how long I'd been gone."

That got her to slow down. "You didn't see the news or read a newspaper?"

"Nope. On the run, remember?" He smiled as he said it.

She waved a hand at him. "Doesn't your… phone thingy have the date?" She still sounded angry.

"Nope," he repeated. "It was supposed to just relay orders and message within Shinra. Didn't need to know the date."

"Well, that's just stupid." She practically stomped her foot. It was cute, and it made Zack want…

"Can I kiss you?" he asked.

That stopped her rant. She looked up at him, eyes wide and mouth open.

"I'd really like to kiss you," he said. "But you don't have to–"

" _Yes!_ " Aerith blinked. "That is, I, um… Yes. I'd like to be kissed. … Please."

Zack was smiling when he kissed her, and it was exactly like and yet more than he'd ever dreamed. She tasted like sunshine and flowers. The touch of her lips made his skin buzz and his mind spin, and they were just using lips. Well, he was using his teeth to nibble, just a little.

It helped that she responded. That she sighed a little, and squeaked a little, and clutched at his hands as they framed her face.

If he didn't stop, he wouldn't be able to walk.

He rested his forehead against hers. He could stop kissing her, but he couldn't stop touching her.

"You are magnificent," he whispered. "I think I'll adore you. Carry you around on a pedestal and kiss your feet.

She giggled. "I don't want to be on a pedestal, silly!"

"Okay, I'll carry your flowers instead. Just keep kissing me." He pressed his lips to her skin. "You make me feel real."

And she did. The journey was over. Even if he died tomorrow because a piece of the plate fell on his head, he'd still know that he'd made it out of there. It was real and true – he was home.

"You're safe now, Zack," she whispered to him as if knowing his thoughts. "You don't ever have to go back."

Well, maybe not. But he'd be sleeping with one eye open in case the Turks decided to visit unexpectedly.

.o0|0o.

Tseng was at his desk reading through Heidegger's demands: encourage or create an eco‑terrorist faction that Shinra could use as a scapegoat if future upgrades caused problems to the reactors.

But no upgrades or major repairs were scheduled for any of the reactors, not in Midgar, nor anywhere else on the planet.

That meant either Heidegger or the president – most likely the latter – were planning to cause those problems. That meant Tseng needed to figure out where his remaining Turks could push back and where they'd have to give. With all but a handful of Turks in hiding, the amount of room he had to work with was a lot smaller than it used to be.

His PHS rang. He marked his place on the page before answering. "Tseng."

"Yo, boss man. You'll never guess who I ran into tonight."

"I don't have time for–"

"That missing lab experiment we were hunting yesterday."

Tseng's eyes cut to the box sitting on the credenza. "Zack Fair?"

"He was with the Ancient."

That was… Well, 'surprising' wasn't quite right. "Did he look healthy?"

"Physically? Sure. But considering what he was wearing, I'd check for mental illness. The shirt, yo. Practically glowed in the dark."

Fair wasn't in uniform. What did it mean?

"Oh, and boss? Flower girl's pissed and demanding her letters back."

Tseng didn't look at the box again. His reflexes once again under his full control. "Understood."

He closed his PHS and stood up from his desk. Heidegger's orders could wait. He had a delivery to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For whatever reason, I had Vera Lynn's version of "We'll Meet Again" running through my brain while I wrote this chapter and that made me think of my dad since was a fan of hers. He came back from war pretty messed up and nothing against my mom, but I don't think she was his Aerith. 
> 
> Well, I'm not sure it's humanly possible to be somebody's Aerith, but we always try for someone we love. People can only fix themselves, and we can only help if they let us. 
> 
> (Miss you, Dad)


	5. Like Bees to Honey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud visits an old friend and learns some interesting things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cloud makes a booty call on Andrea Rhodea. It's not graphic. In fact, it's mostly a vehicle to explore some of Cloud's backstory – let us know what he got up to after he left Shinra. However, if that's a squick for you, my feelings won't be hurt if you want to skip this chapter.

All Cloud was going to do was to make sure the boy, Oates, made it back to his orphanage, but instead there was a detour to take care of some monsters that had infested a part of the kids' play area (followed by a whimsical exchange with a boy dressed as a moogle).

When he returned to the main street, he couldn't see Zack, so he walked around the shopping area, checking out the goods. He picked up a nice little earring with a decent protection enchantment for less than he could've gotten elsewhere. He grabbed a muffin from a diner that tasted worse than it should've.

He found the place Oates called home. It was clean. Seemed well cared for. Better than he'd expected from Sector 5, the poorest of the western sectors.

When he'd explored everything he could, Cloud went back to the road and debating going to find Zack and his girl. It seemed pretty intrusive though. It'd been a long time since they'd seen each other, and if Cloud's reading of the situation was right, they'd both been missing each other something fierce. If they were wrapped around each other, they probably wouldn't appreciate him coming up there to gawk.

Besides, there wasn't a place for him to stay here – not one with a decent shower anyway.

Cloud could make it back to Sector 7 – his apartment had a full-size bathroom, and all he'd have to do was go up onto the collapsed highway and circle around the wall. Easy enough, but he didn't want to sleep alone tonight.

Cloud didn't often wish for more than what he had. Not anymore. It was usually enough that he was alive and free of Shinra. He had a circle of friends – a small circle, it was true, but they were his and true. He had an even smaller group of friends who were occasionally more than just friends.

Decision made he turned back to the main thoroughfare. Chadley's white hair stood out in the dim light from the nearby stores.

"Heya Chadley," he said as he got close.

"Hello again, Cloud. Do you have new data for me?"

"Sorry, no. Do me a favour?"

The boy nodded slightly. "Of course. Whatever is in my power."

So Cloud asked Chadley to give a message to Zack when they came by. They'd have to pass this point, even if they didn't take the most direct path to the girl's house. (Something else he'd scoped out while he was wandering.

"Make sure to tell him I'll be back tomorrow around nine."

"At this spot, exactly?" Chadley asked. Cloud nodded. "I will tell him so. Thank you for your trust in me."

The boy was odd, and Cloud had some suspicions about his origins, but he was harmless. And occasionally helpful.

The trip to Sector 6 took no time at all since he let Deza run the full way. It wasn't polite, but it was _fun_. The few people on the road backed up to the edges as he passed. Hopefully, they'd assume he belonged to Sam's crew and direct their complaints there.

While Deza ran, he let his mind wander. He'd dropped his dreams of being more than what he was when he'd realized that SOLDIER was nothing but lab rats who'd survived and not the heroes they were marketed as. And yet…

Zack Fair, SOLDIER First Class, declared dead in '03, had revived a lot of thoughts of what could've been. A lot of what ifs…

What if, Cloud mused. What if he'd made it into SOLDIER? Would he've been able to stop Sephiroth in Nibelheim? Would he've been able to save his ma, and Tifa's father. And maybe save Zack from years of torture? Would he've become a hero with his picture in the magazines?

It was what he'd dreamed of long ago, when he'd said good-bye to Tifa in Nibelheim. That he'd return a SOLDIER, a hero, and sweep Tifa up in his arms, and all the other villagers would just stand there, doing nothing, because he'd shown them.

It had been a childish dream. One they'd since given up on. They were friends, sure, but he'd learned too much about himself in his years away from small-town Nibelheim.

Cloud walked Deza through edge of Wall Market to Sam's place on the S6-7 Road, paying to stable him overnight. Then he walked into the noise and the crowds of the central area. There were businesses crammed into every available space, and they all shouted their offerings to the shifting horde, which was twice as thick now that the seediness was fully hidden

Cloud got a bit of extra space because of his sword, but there were just too many people, and the paths were too narrow. He got bumped and jostled, and occasionally, felt up.

Some days, he didn't like the press, but tonight it grounded him. Forced him to be aware of his physicality and forced him away from his thoughts.

Tonight, it was just what he needed.

A quick stop to drop off his laundry, and then to the Honeybee Inn. As always, there was a lineup, but the bouncer just nodded and let Cloud through. They'd worked together back when Cloud had nothing but his mako-enhanced muscles to get him a job under the plate. Back when he really _had_ been nobody.

His first step through to reception and he smelled it: beeswax and honeysuckle from candles placed around the room – available for sale at the desk at a ridiculous price. (Cloud had a couple at his place for when he needed the warmth of nostalgia.)

"Hey, Luka," he greeted the receptionist.

"Mr Cloud. How nice to see you again." It embarrassed Cloud to be addressed as a high-status visitor, but Luka insisted.

"Is Andy available?" he asked.

"Mr Rhodea is expected on stage shortly, but he will be free after that."

That was reassuring. They didn't have an exclusive relationship, but it would still be awkward if Andy'd arranged to spend time with someone else.

"You will watch the show?" It was more than a suggestion. Cloud could skip it, but Andy was a good choreographer, and he was proud of his dancers. Many of his people managed to move to upper Midgar, getting work in the shows on Loveless Avenue. He'd be offended if Cloud decided to skip the show.

On the other hand, if Andy saw him in the crowd…

Cloud sighed. He'd have to risk it. "Please let him know I'm here, but that I'm dirty from travel, and I have my sword."

"I will tell him." Luka leaned forward. "It may not dissuade him."

Maybe Cloud could find a table in the back, out of the lights. "Thanks, Luka."

"My pleasure, Mr Cloud."

Cloud nodded to the honeygirls and boys he knew.

Outside of the Honeybee Inn they'd be called hookers. Here, they were personal entertainers. Unlike the brothels directly controlled by Don Corneo, at the Honeybee Inn each entertainer could set limits to what services they provided. Those limits were strictly enforced by the Inn's staff. It was a form of safety in a job where there was normally very little.

The inner antechamber featured the same silk and velvet decorations, the same candles, and a fountain topped by two honeybees kissing. It was tacky as hell, but Cloud kind of loved it.

"Cloud!" The first voice was followed by several other Honeys. Cloud said hi to them all. "Are you dancing tonight?"

"I hope not. I'm dirty and I got shit-kickers on." He lifted a foot so they could see how heavy his boots were. The Honeys made appropriate horrified sounds. It didn't stop them from dragging him into the showroom, right to the front where the stage lights were sure to catch him.

When a tray of finger food – what Andy called appetisers – showed up at his table unordered, he ate them. (They weren't as good as the steam buns he'd shared with Zack, but they filled a hole.)

The pre-show was on: contortionists, jugglers, acrobats, and other performers who didn't fit into a dance routine but were too good not to perform. The Honeys chatted through them all. How was his trip? Did he find anything interesting, buy anything interesting? Had he remembered to drop off the medicine to Layle's Grandma in Healin and how was she?

Cloud answered them softly, knowing how much the performers on stage heard even over the music.

Then the lights dimmed, the crowed stilled, and everyone held their breath.

Cloud watched the dancers move through their complicated sets. Every motion was designed to celebrate sensuality. Each couple pressed together as if they were inches away from getting naked right there on stage. And then they switched around. Twosomes became threesomes, then back to twosomes again, but this time men danced with men, and women with women. It didn't matter. None of the groups looked like being on stage stopped them from enjoying each other's bodies.

Then they paused, parted, and Andrea Rhodea was there, centre stage.

Tight-fitting clothes, sleek and shiny, wrapped around him. It glistened like silk, but it was perfect because he moved like silk too. He flowed in and between the circling dancers, joining them for a brief touch before moving on. It was perfectly Andrea, and Cloud appreciated every movement.

He knew the exact moment he was spotted. Andy smiled and his hands formed a heart over his chest. One beat.

Cloud wasn't good displaying his emotions in public, but he placed a hand over his heart and fluttered it a couple times. Andy smiled and turned back to his routine.

The Honeys with Cloud cooed and fussed. A quick glance at nearby tables showed him that people were looking at him. Cloud sank down in his seat and ignored them all. He watched the show. Lifts and turns, slides and jumps, all designed to make the watchers want…

Cloud wasn't pulled on stage. He was grateful, considering, but also… Also disappointed.

Cloud had started at the Inn as a bouncer, but the pay was better if you could dance. He'd learned some moves – mostly lifting the dancers, walking around the stage with them, and then putting them down in a reasonably graceful manner. He'd been pretty self-conscious, and honestly, pretty horrible, but he'd been cute and muscled and could lift any of the dancers.

One day, during rehearsal, he'd realized that dancing made him be aware of his body and each body moving around him in a way he hadn't been since leaving the army. He had to track each person as they moved so that he was _there_ doing _that_ at a precise moment and time… and then he had to keep moving, keep going no matter what.

He'd realized that dancing was like fighting and he'd fallen in love with it.

Andy had seen him shimmying up the street on a quiet morning, practicing his footwork in front of an uncaring, hung-over crowd. It was that, rather than Jules's friendship, that had brought them together.

Four years later they were still casual lovers because Andrea Rhodea didn't do exclusive, but Cloud still loved to watch him move.

After the bows and curtain calls, Andy sauntered over. A raised eyebrow had the Honeys scattering in a giggling cloud.

"Cloud," Andy purred. He brushed his cheek along Cloud's. "It's been far too long."

Andy always sounded like sex and Cloud always blushed. "You were great up there."

Andy waved it away. "I had… _inspiration_." He glanced down at Cloud's crotch, and Cloud knew he'd noticed the bulge. Andy smiled. "So how long do I have you for?"

"Gotta pickup tomorrow," Cloud answered.

"All night! How wonderful." Andrea stood up, holding out his hand in obvious expectation that he'd be obeyed.

Cloud looked at it. He knew what everyone would think when he took it. But in the end, what a roomful of strangers thought was less important than a pebble in the dirt. He took Andy's hand, and let himself be pulled upright.

"Don't you have to do a circuit first?" he asked softly.

"It's neither opening nor closing night," Andy said. But he turned to the crowd with a wave and wished them all a pleasant visit at the Inn. Then he gave Cloud an exaggerated leer and led him out of the room.

The antechamber was just as crowded as before. Cloud played his part, letting Andy guide him and pet him, while he tipped his head shyly. He let himself sneer at the few people who looked scandalized, and he smiled in triumph at the few who looked jealous.

Once the door to Andy's private rooms shut, the act was dropped. "You are a love, Cloud. Playing along in my little scene." Andrea Rhodea had a strong personality, but he wasn't dominant. It was why Don Corneo now owned the Inn and not its founder

Cloud shrugged. "Doesn't hurt me any to be underestimated."

"Only a fool would underestimate you." Andy twirled away to sit in front of his large vanity. He didn't wear much makeup on stage, but under the stage lights, everybody needed some. "I heard you'd been seen around town, but you didn't stop to visit with anyone." ("Anyone" meaning Andy's brother Jules.)

"Had a delivery in Sector 5," Cloud said from the doorway. He'd removed his boots, not wanting to get their dirt on Andy's white rug. "Wanted to get it done before your show."

Andy leaned back to give him a sharp-eyed look. "Partly a lie, but you did end up here, so who am I to complain?"

Cloud walked barefoot to the doorway of the dressing room. "I got a little sidetracked, but I always intended to come." Which was true, but when he'd first thought of ending this trip in Andy's bed, there'd been no urgency to the idea, just a casual 'wouldn't it be nice'.

"You have the best shower under the plate," Cloud teased. "Of course, I'd come to see you."

He'd worked hard for his emotions to stop at 'wouldn't it be nice'.

Andrea looked at him in the mirror, eyes wide and mouth open in astonishment. The he laughed. Not his social titter but a full laugh. One that caused wrinkles. Cloud's smiled widened.

"Asshole," Andy said fondly.

"Wanna join me?" Cloud asked. From his pocket, he pulled the small strip of condoms he purchased at the same time he'd picked up Zack's.

A final wipe to remove the last of the paint, and Andy stood up, stood close to Cloud. "Of course."

Cloud hadn't been teasing about Andy's shower. It was huge, with lots of jets and lots of hot water filtered to almost above-the-plate quality. It also had convenient ledges and hand holds that they made good use of. Round one was a slow exploration of each other's bodies. It was nibbles, soft licks, and touching with fingertips. It was each making sure they still responded to each other the same way.

Round two was much more energetic. They moved to Andy's ridiculously big bed and Cloud took charge in a way no one who'd seen them downstairs would've believed. Cloud's personality may have been muted, but he wasn't submissive, and he soon had Andy begging and pleading.

Cloud kept to the steady, deliberate rhythm he preferred, kept to it, stuck to it…. Until he couldn't anymore.

Then it was laying next to each other. Too warm where they touched but cool where the sweat evaporated from skin. It was a lovely lazy feeling, and almost as good as the sex.

"That was wonderful," Andy said. He stretched where he lay under Cloud, and Cloud couldn't help but grab his ass just to feel the muscles move. It made Andy laugh. He rolled onto his back, away from Cloud's grabby hands. Cloud adjusted grumpily.

"Don't fall asleep on me, there's a love."

"You feel good," Cloud muttered.

"You feel like you've been living in a desert," Andy complained. "Don't you use moisturizer?"

No. "Ran out."

Andy grabbed fistful of hair and gave Cloud's head a shake. "Liar."

Cloud was unbothered by the accusation. "Maybe a little."

He huffed as Andy rolled out of bed, but since he now had the full thing to himself, Cloud took advantage and spread out as much as he could. There were satin sheets in the entertainment rooms downstairs, but up here Andy used only the highest thread count cotton sheets – and the cotton was from the Cosmo Plains, too. Andy had probably paid as much for this one set of sheets as Cloud had spent on Deza.

Andy came back with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Cloud groaned a protest but lifted himself until he was sitting against the headboard. He took the glass of red that Andy gave him and sipped. Andy watched him one eyebrow raised. This was a test then.

Cloud let the liquid sit on his tongue, moving it only slightly. Acidic like most of Andy's preferred wines, it was still rich and smooth. There were hints of apple and … nutmeg? He tried to think of an area he'd equate with grapes, apples and nutmeg but couldn't. He shook his head. "Tastes good," he said with a shrug, and took a larger drink.

Andy smiled in triumph. "Hardly surprising you couldn't place it. It's a new winery out in Banora. This was their first run."

Cloud took the bottle Andy held out to him. It had a pretty label, and a bland name probably chosen to sound old and established. Bottled in year 02. Five years ago. Same year he'd spent in a coma, wandering a white featureless plain, unable to find his body. Same year Sephiroth had burned down Nibelheim and Zack had been taken to be experimented on.

"Banora used to be famous for its apples," Andy said, pouring more wine into their glasses. "There was a blight in year zero, or something. Destroyed most of the trees, so they switched to grapes. I, for one, am happy they did."

It was decent wine. One that Cloud would never buy for himself.

Andy curled to face him. "So, do you have any gossip from the rural heartland?"

Cloud shook his head. "Same old. Quiet trip until I hit the Midgar wastelands. Makes me wonder if that environmental group might be right."

"Right about what?" Andy asked with a slight sniff. "And which group? Midgar seems to be overrun with them lately."

"Right about the damage being done to the planet," Cloud answered carefully. "Go out a couple days, and most animals run away when I get near. Here, they attack. And they're bigger."

"Maybe, like humans, they have to be more aggressive because resources are scarcer," Andy suggested.

Cloud shrugged and let it drop. "What've you heard?"

Andy shimmied a little, eager to share his news. "Well, speaking of environmental groups, the president might be getting a little impatient with Heidegger's lack of progress against Avalanche."

"Avalanche is crazy." Cloud snorted then frowned. "I thought they'd blown themselves up, or something."

"Some of them maybe, but if Wutai _is_ backing them, they'll never really go away."

Which was true, but Cloud was hesitant to believe Avalanche was Wutaian. It suited Shinra's propaganda aims too well.

"They've managed to destroy a lot of things the president cares about," Andy said. "Including his relationship with his only legitimate child."

"He'll welcome Rufus back at some point. Legacy." Cloud said. "Who else's he got to take over."

"Well, barring the return of the prodigal son, the only other competent member of the board is Scarlet." He must've seen something in Cloud's expression. "What? Don't you think she's the only choice?"

"It's not that," Cloud said reluctantly. He drank the last of his wine.

Andy filled his glass back up. "Spill."

With a sigh, Cloud gave in. "Dunno if I'd call any of them competent," he said. "In Wutai, their planning was shit. Coordination between departments was double shit. Half the tech she sent broke down or went crazy killing Shinra troops. SOLDIERs are the only reason they won."

"But they _did_ win."

"Having a bigger stick than the other guy doesn't make you competent. Just makes you a better bully."

Andy gave him a small smile. "Do you know many people who think Shinra's a bully?"

Cloud carefully sipped his wine. "Always be someone complaining," he said. "We could be balls deep in the Promised Land and some would still complain."

This time Andy's laugh was real. "That's true enough. Along the same vein, rumour has it that the head of Administrative Research is dead, and that it was another Turk who did the job."

Cloud grunted in surprise. News about the Turks was rare. In fact, nobody outside Shinra's higher levels was supposed to know the Administrative Research department wasn't a bunch of statisticians crunching numbers and writing reports nobody read. Cloud had been part of Shinra, and _he_ hadn't known what department they belonged to. He'd only found out because of Andy's gossip.

Like he'd told Zack, a lot of information sifted through Wall Market and it was worth Andy's life to keep on top of it all passing it up as necessary – or down as requested.

It occurred to Cloud, not for the first time, that one of the reasons Andy didn't settle into anything long-term exclusive was so Corneo couldn't get that kind of leverage on him. It was, in an odd way, Andy's way of protecting his lovers.

Of course, Andy could've left Sector 6 when Corneo'd moved in. Sector 7 would've welcomed him. Cloud had suggested it once, to both Andy and Jules, but they'd invested too much of themselves here and neither had been willing to start over.

Jules had managed to avoid Corneo's notice for the most part, and his business continued without change. Andrea Rhodea, owner of the iconic Honeybee Inn, had not.

"Well," Cloud finally said. "Wasn't like they'd let the guy retire to Costa del Sol."

"Did you ever meet the former head?" Andy asked. "What was his name? Verd, Verdot…"

Cloud shook his head. "Did one job with a Turk. Was disastrous." He sipped his wine. Still not something he'd buy. "Do they ever show up here?" He tried to imagine the Turks he'd seen, dark suited and blank, sitting at one of the tables downstairs with a Honey of either sex draped over them. He failed.

"Not that I'm aware of," Andy said. "You know, for a super-secret spy organization, they don't try to blend in much."

"Maybe." Cloud smirked. "But would you recognize one outta the suit?"

Andy opened his mouth. Closed it again, and hummed understanding.

He gave Cloud a long look. They'd kicked the top sheet off earlier. Cloud hadn't bothered pulling it back up. Here, in Andy's bed, Cloud was as unselfconscious about his sexuality as he ever was. More than he'd ever thought possible when he'd been that scrawny Strife brat back in Nibelheim.

He watched Andy looking at him, and very carefully, very deliberately, poured some of the wine into his navel. He waited 'til Andy lifted his eyes to his.

"Oops," Cloud said, and started round three.


	6. Old Friends and Worse Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tseng shows up at Aerith's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mild sexy times between Zack and Aerith.

* * *

Zack was in the kitchen doing dishes with Aerith by his side. At the small table, just on the other side of the counter, Elmyra sat and watched him. Zack knew she thought he would bring trouble down on them, but she'd always thought that, even back when he'd been a lauded member of SOLDIER.

Not that he could fault her. Aerith's freedom and her life sat on a very precarious ledge and they all knew it. Any day, Shinra could jerk the leash and the Turks would pick her up. Elmyra was very aware, that Zack's very-alive presence could be the final stone on the scale.

There was another reason Elmyra was staring at Zack in judgement: Aerith was touching him. Constantly.

And when she wasn't touching him, she was pulling his head down to give him soft kisses (on the cheek, but still.) She also looked at him like she wanted to lick him like he was an ice cream cone – which was how she was looking at him right now.

And hoo boy! That was _not_ a thought to be having in front of her mother.

He was probably looking at her the exact same way.

There was a knock on the door.

Both Aerith and Elmyra turned to it in surprise. Their reaction was enough for Zack to grab Angeal's sword from where he'd propped it against the wall. He positioned himself so he'd be able to see the visitor as soon as Aerith opened the door, but they wouldn't see him.

He blocked out Elmyra's disapproval, and the effects of Aerith's approval, and tried to listen through the wooden door: how many people were outside? Was there the clink and jangle of armour and weapons?

Aerith opened the door, just a little at first, and then all at once. "Tseng!"

The Turk looked at Zack. He didn't reach for a gun, but Zack didn't lower his sword.

Tseng gave Zack's outfit one wide-eyed look before he gathered his stillness around him. He dipped his head slightly at Aerith. "Aerith." Then Aerith's mom. "Ms Gainsborough." Then he turned back to Zack. His bow was a little deeper. "Zack."

Zack analyzed the tone. Then he did it again because it didn't sound like a threat, or a warning. In fact, he'd swear Tseng sounded… apologetic. Or something.

"Tseng," Zack answered cautiously. "I guess Reno reported in."

Tseng nodded. "I came as soon as I could get away safely." The Turk made no move to step into the room. He made no move at all. He just stood there. Holding a box.

"What's in the box?" Zack asked. He was starting to feel an ache in his shoulders. Buster swords were made for swinging not holding.

"Your letters." Tseng's eyes dipped. "I apologize that I was unable to deliver them earlier."

What the hells?

What did that even mean?

Zack looked to Aerith. Should they let the Turk in? Kick him out? This wasn't how Zack expected this meeting to go.

"I won't have bloodshed in my house," Elmyra broke the stalemate. "Let him in, Aerith, and Zack. Put your sword away."

Zack lowered the sword, but he didn't want to put it down, not really. This was _Tseng_. If this was some kind of set up, not having Galatine in his hand could be the difference between capture and freedom, life and death.

"I'm not here to arrest you," Tseng said. The look he gave Zack was understanding. "In fact, officially, I'm not here at all."

"I won't go back."

"No," Tseng agreed.

Zack relaxed his stance, but it took an act of will to place the sword against the wall. To turn his back on Tseng – the Number 2 man in Shinra's most deadly division.

When he turned back to the room Tseng had placed the box on the table in front of Aerith.

"Are these…?" she asked.

Tseng nodded. "Yes. Unopened."

She ran soft fingers over the lid. Then she straightened and turned to face the Turk. "Did you know where he was?" she asked. Her voice was the flattest, most unfriendly that Zack had ever heard from her, but he couldn't look away from Tseng. He'd assumed that Tseng had known, but maybe…?

Tseng didn't look away from Aerith. "Yes. I knew."

The air went flat and hollow.

Zack wanted to kill him.

He wanted to jump on Tseng and _fucking strangle–_

Aerith slapped Tseng.

Hard.

The sound of palm on cheek was followed by Elmyra's frightened gasp.

Zack didn't look at Elmyra. He only barely saw Aerith, standing furious and glorious.

He saw Tseng. Who'd accepted the slap but didn't apologize by word or gesture.

"I gotta get out of here."

Zack grabbed Angeal's sword and… Ran? Jumped? Strode? He left.

Across the bridge. Aerith's flowers… (no flowers in Hojo's lab...)

Under a light that chased away the night… (no lights in the cells….)

Through fields filled with colour… (acid green filling his vision, everywhere always…)

Down the path, storming across a second bridge… (begging for water, for food…)

He jumped up straight up onto the raised landing… (always on display, always exposed…)

He stood at the entrance to the tunnel. He could run down it, move, get away.

But then he'd be leaving Aerith and Elmyra with that traitorous, son of a…

Zack put his head back and howled.

And when he had no more breath, when tears blurred his vision so much that he couldn't see the path, he heard footsteps.

They were deliberate, heavy. Not the footsteps of a flower girl. He pulled his sword and spun. The old moves coming back easily for once.

When he stopped, he was braced on the lower path and Tseng stood in front of him, unmoving. Only a small slice in his suit showing he'd come too close to the ex-SOLDIER.

Zack stood up slowly, sword out but down.

"I want to fucking kill you, Tseng so fucking much." His voice shook he didn't care.

"I understand."

Zack's gaze narrowed. He could feel the mako heating his blood. "Do you."

Tseng stood absolutely still, hands up and empty of weapons. Again, he didn't apologize. Just stood waiting for Zack to…. To do what? Slap his other cheek? Break down crying?

" _How could you do that to me!_ "

The blade went up. Then down.

Zack's cry echoed around the walls of Aerith's little hollow…

Then died.

Angeal's sword glinted in the low light. Buried halfway into the ground less than a handspan from Tseng's toes.

Tseng lifted his chin. "Hojo wanted Shotgun as well."

Zack just stared at the Turk. "So, you traded me for her? Is that it?"

Tseng gave a small nod. "That's exactly it. Thank you for her life."

"I don't _want_ your thanks," Zack spat. "I didn't volunteer to be her hero. I didn't volunteer for _anything_ –"

"Except you did."

Zack stopped. He shook his head, denying…

Tseng looked right at him. "When you agreed to join SOLDIER, there was fine print," Tseng said. "You probably didn't read it."

" _Of course_ I didn't fucking read it!"

Zack tried to swallow his rage, but it was a ball at the back of his throat, in his lungs. His skin felt electrified with it. He pulled the sword out of the ground and paced away and back. "Did I agree to vivisection, Tseng? Was _that_ in the fine print. Without anaesthetic, mind, because narcotics might alter the results."

He heard Tseng pull in a breath.

"Or what about the old cleaner dude who tried to slip me some chocolate? Did he sign up to be genetically fused with a rabid fucking _wolf_?"

"We have no control over Hojo's proj–"

"Don't kid yourself, pal. None of you have any control over Hojo," Zack sneered. "He's working toward something, and it's not old man Shinra's Promised Land, so you'd better be prepared for him to burn you all when he's decided he's done."

"We are aware that he's–"

"A sadistic megalomaniac with a side order of _fucking insane_?"

Again, Zack's voice echoed around the hollow. Tseng let it fade before speaking. "Things have changed in the last five years, Zack."

Zack grit his teeth at Tseng's casual use of his first name. As if they were the friends Zack had thought they were back before. "President's still trying to rule everything, Hojo's still doing his evil experiments, and the Turks are still covering everything up. What's changed?"

"Veld deserted," Tseng said. His voice was emotionless, as always. "He discovered Elfe, Avalanche's main warrior, was his daughter. Fuhito, the leader of Avalanche, had experimented on her–"

Zack snorted. "Did she not read the fine print either?" He flipped the sword onto his back, enjoying the solid 'clunk' as metal met magnet

"She was supposed to have died in '97."

"Well, gee," Zack sneered. He crossed his arms and glared at Tseng. "Looks like the club's getting bigger. Me, Genesis, Veld's daughter. All we need now is Sephiroth coming back from the dead."

"Despite what you might be feeling now, I _am_ glad you survived." Tseng allowed a little emotion to colour his voice. "As soon as I found out about the orders to the army, I had Reno and Rude looking for you."

"Why?"

"To rescue you. To help," he said. "I'm not actually sure." Tseng finally looked away, crossing an arm across his chest.

Zack looked at Tseng. There was finally a trace of embarrassment in his posture, but it could've been fake. He turned away, looking out over Aerith's flowers. The miracle she'd brought to life in this sunless land. He thought about Tseng watching over her, hiding her, so she'd grow up here, with Elmyra, and not in Hojo's lab.

Zack thought that. And he thought about the kind of risk it would've been for Tseng to have helped him in any way yesterday. Then he thought of four long years….

"I'm not actually sure that's enough to make up for everything," he said finally. He looked up and saw Aerith silhouetted against the open front door. He couldn't see her face, but she looked anxious.

"I'll consider it," he said abruptly. "I'll consider everything you said, and we'll just see where it goes."

"Very well." Tseng gave a long nod, kind of like a bow.

"One last thing," Zack said, voice flat and cold. "If anyone tries to take Aerith to that bastard I _will_ kill them. I don't care who it is. You can even send another battalion, and I'll kill them all."

Again, Tseng nodded. "Understood."

"Time for you to go." Zack shifted off the path. After all, the Turk couldn't leave as long as Zack blocked the way. And leave's what Tseng did, without another word. He climbed the stairs to become a dark shadow walking into the even darker tunnel until he was gone. It was like he'd never been there at all. Except Aerith was still standing at the door.

Zack put his hands on his hips. Was he ready to go back into that small house, or would he bark at Aerith and her mother? Take out this restless, frustrated _something_ on two people who had done nothing to deserve it.

"Zack?" Aerith's soft voice called to him. She was nearly within reach.

He looked at her. He sighed. "I am really angry right now."

"I know." She did. She'd actually slapped Tseng after all.

A little grin flickered on his lips. "You know, if you're going to go around hitting people, we should get you a better weapon."

She made a face. "I don't actually _plan_ on hitting anyone else."

Zack's smile fell away. "You might not have a choice. Eventually, Shinra's going to want you back. If you're not willing to go, then you need to be able to defend yourself."

"I don't know…"

"At least until you can run, or I can get to you," he said. "They're not going to forget about you, Aerith. They never have. The Number 2 Turk doesn't watch ordinary people. Not even extraordinary flower girls."

"I know." It was a soft sound.

He stepped closer, so she could see more than just his glowing eyes. "I'll help you, if you let me."

She didn't say anything. She just stood, thinking and Zack let her. She'd been patient with him, after all.

He held out his hand offering it to her. With a look up at him, she took it. Her hands, though slim, were strong with years of working Midgar's hard, dry soil. He led her back over the bridge into her beloved flowers, knowing they would steady her – much like his grip on Angeal's sword steadied him.

She led him off the path to kneel in a cleared area, just out of the light.

"I never told you," she said. "The flowers, they... I sometimes feel that they have something important to tell me. Something they need to share with me. But I can't hear them yet."

"Do you want to hear them?"

She looked at him, before turning back to the flowers. "I don't know. I think… Whatever they're trying to say it must be important."

"Or they wouldn't make effort," Zack said in agreement. He wasn't sure flowers _could_ talk, but in a world with Tonberries, it wouldn't be the strangest thing Terra had produced.

"I'm… a descendent of the Ancients," she reminded him. "That's pretty much it, really. It's why my flowers grow, and why the Turks watch me."

"Right…" It made perfect, awful sense.

"Mm-hmm," she nodded. "They think I can lead them to the Promised Land."

Zack grunted.

"I can't, by the way," she said. "And I wouldn't even if I could."

"No kidding," Zack agreed with a laugh. "The moment Shinra gets to the Promised Land, it's fucked."

It made her giggle – probably in shock, but it was still a happy sound, and he grinned in response. The spot here was mostly flowerless, so Zack stretched out on his back, hands behind his head. "Sorry, guys," he said to the couple plants that he might've knocked. "You smell better from down here anyway." Aerith thumped him lightly on the chest. It didn't kill his smile.

"You know, from everything we know about them, Ancients were pretty bad ass."

"I'm only a little bit of one," she said sadly. "Oh, just so you know, that's not their actual name. They called themselves the Cetra."

"Ehh," Zack wiggled his head. "I kind of like the idea of you being an Ancient. Means I'm making it with an older woman. _Rawrrrr_."

This time, when Aerith hit him, it almost hurt. He pulled her down on top of him, and they both laughed. Zack loved her laugh. How she smiled and the way her eyes lit up. But when he looked into her eyes, the laughter died away.

Even in this dim light he could see the way her eyes flicked to his mouth. She pursed her lips, as if tasting them, and he sucked in a breath.

" _Aerith_." No louder than the wind passing through the flowers.

He made sure his grip on her was light, easily broken, but he wanted to grab. He wanted to hold.

She leaned, closer and closer until her lips touched his, softly, delicately. He couldn't help himself. He opened his mouth a little and tasted her. Nothing much – just a little lick.

This time she sucked in a breath. "Oh." She blinked down at him, licking _her_ lips in the spot he'd touched.

This time… When she leaned down for a kiss, she licked _his_ lips. She traced their shape, and it was great, it was fabulous. Her hard little tongue against his sensitive skin. He was instantly hard like he was fourteen again.

She pulled back and Zack swallowed his instinctive protest. At least, she didn't go far. She was panting slighting, breath rapid and shallow.

"Aerith," he breathed. "Anything you want. I'm yours."

She put her hands on his chest, rubbing it through the obnoxious T-shirt Cloud had bought him. When questing fingers discovered hard nipples, they paused. "Oh."

She stroked them as if they were the petals of a flower and Zack couldn't stop the groan. She pulled back her hands.

"No, no. It's fine. It's fucking better than fine," he said. Then he groaned again. "I might cum in my pants like a teenager, but it's all good."

She giggled at him. "I like seeing you like this," she said.

"Yeah?" he managed. "Then go right ahead. I'll just let _you_ explain the wet spot – _to your mother_."

She stared at him silently. He could see the calculations going on in her head. She was going to kill him. Somehow.

He was okay with that.

She tapped her fingertips over his belly at the top of his shorts. "If you take your clothes off, there won't be any proof."

"Fuuuuuck," he moaned.

Her fingers withdrew. "Is that a–"

"It's a yes! _Fuck_ yes." He sat up quick enough that he nearly knocked her in the chin. His hands went to the bottom of the T-shirt and dragged it up, but he'd forgotten the button-up he was wearing over it, and the sword harness he hadn't taken off, and he wound up with an arm tied up around his head somehow, and Aerith laughing at him.

"Oh Zack." She helped him pull everything down again. Then she helped him take it all off.

"Do you want me to…" He waved at his shorts, or maybe it was his crotch. It was both.

"As long as you don't hurt yourself doing it," she said with a twinkle.

Zack fell onto his back, arm over his eyes. "I'm never living this down, am I?"

"Never," she laughed. She also undid the top button of his shorts and took his breath away.

"Aerith?!" It was Elmyra.

"Fuck!" Zack immediately curled up and tried to cover his nipples. Hopefully, Aerith's mother was calling from the front porch and not the balcony on the third floor. She'd be able to see them from the third floor.

Aerith, the witch, laughed at him, and stood up as if she hadn't just had her hands on his pants. Right near his _penis._

She took a couple steps closer to the light. "Mom? Is everything okay?"

"I was going to ask you…" It didn't sound like she was coming any closer, which was good because Zack couldn't find the opening in his effing _T-shirt_.

"We're fine," Aerith shouted back. "Zack's just… a little worked up. Tense, you know."

Zack stopped mouth open. Was she…?

"They didn't fight?"

"No," Aerith answered. "He just doesn't want to come in the house. You know, in case he loses control of himself and makes a mess?"

She _was_. She was making _sexual innuendos_ in conversation _with her mother_!

He poked her ankle in protest.

"I appreciate his consideration," Elmyra shouted from the house. "Come in when you're ready, then."

"Thanks, Mom!" Aerith stood waiting until Elmyra closed the door – or just to be a _tease_.

Zack poked her again. A couple times.

"Would you stop that, Zack." She frowned down at him.

"How could you _do_ that?" he hissed. "With your _mom_!"

She grinned at him. "Because it's fun watching you squirm."

He groaned. "I'd forgotten you can be _evil_."

"I'd forgotten you're so easy to tease." She knelt next to him, primly tucking her skirt under her.

Suddenly it wasn't funny. He'd forgotten. She'd forgotten. That was what five years had done. He grabbed the hand that was reaching for his chest. "Aerith." His throat closed.

She looked at him when he couldn't continue.

"Ah, okay." He cleared his throat. He sat up more fully. "So, it just occurred to me that, umm… Yeah, okay, this could be the dumbest thing I've ever done."

"Zack?"

He couldn't look at her or else his good intentions would evaporate. "So, five years is a long time, and we've both changed a lot, and… " He groaned, slapping his free hand to his head. "Fuck me, this is hard."

This time when she called his name, he could hear the small chuckle.

"Wedon'tneedtodothisnow," he rushed out. "I mean, if you want to wait before… you know, intimacy."

"I don't want to wait." It was said calmly and cleanly. A statement with no doubt.

He finally turned to look at her. "Are you sure? Because it's like we're meeting each other again, for the first time."

She laughed. "Za- _ack_! Of _course_ I'm sure." She used their joined hands to gently push him flat. "Did you know I sell flowers on Loveless Avenue?"

He shook his head, holding his breath as she climbed on top of him. Her legs were very warm against his hips.

"There are some _very_ interesting shops on Loveless Avenue," she continued, settling her weight a little south of his belly button. No way she could miss that his penis approved of the position.

"The owner of this one shop _loves_ my flowers. She always comes out to buy a couple, so we got talking and I told her all about my handsome boyfriend who'd been sent on a mission so far away, and how much I _missed_ him, and _longed_ for him and do you know what she did?"

He just shook his head, unable to form words. Aerith was undulating, lightly and slowly. It was probably an accident, but Zack's brain was melting either way.

"She gave me a _very_ interesting book." She tipped her head to the side and put her finger to her lips. "It's _kind_ of an anatomy book? But also kind of a how-to book."

That brought some of Zack's brain back online, because the way Aerith was speaking, it sounded like…

No way.

Aerith's smile was triumphant. She knew what this was doing to him. "She also gave me a toy. A long, cylindrical toy–"

Holy shit!

"–with batteries."

"Oh fuck!" Zack could only whisper it. "You have a _dildo_?"

"Um-hmm. I've used it too." She leaned forward onto her hands, face directly above his. "So when I say, 'I don't want to stop', I mean _I don't want to stop_."

What the hell was he supposed to say to that, Zack wondered. She wanted him. He wanted her. They had some privacy.

"Funny thing…" His voice came out as a squeak. He coughed. "Funny thing," – much better – "I have some condoms."

Aerith's smiled warmed. "You see?" she said. "It's fate." She let her full weight down onto his erection and _rubbed._ Zack whimpered in surrender.

Now that he'd conceded, she became crisp and efficient. "Shirts off, please," she said as she stood and – quite casually – reached under her dress and _removed her panties!_

Zack, who'd obediently reached for the hem of his T-shirt, froze and watched breathlessly. He didn't see anything – the skirt was too long; the light was too dim – but that wasn't really the point _because Aerith had removed her panties._

They were really doing this.

He'd never… Well, He'd kind of hoped, but…

"Shirt, Zack," she reminded him, and he scrambled to obey.

Before the mission to Nibelheim, when life had been chasing Genesis and trying to be a hero, Zack had planned their first time. There would be a nice dinner, a play in Loveless Avenue, casual strolls through the shopping districts above the plate where he'd spoil her as much as his budget would allow. He'd even, during his sunny exile before Nibelheim, imagined taking Aerith to Costa del Sol. (Aerith in a bikini!)

But each plan had ended the same way: Zack taking Aerith back to an expensive room in a swanky hotel with a bed as big as a boat.

Now here they were, fumbling around in the dirt, at risk of having _Aerith's mother_ catch them, and surrounded on all sides by flowers.

It was perfect.

Aerith settled onto his knees, and she reached for the zipper of his shorts.

He put his hands over his face. "I don't know if your 'very interesting' book would've included this, but I might not last very long. I mean, yeah. Because it's you, and I've dreamed…" His voice cracked. "No matter what, I'll make sure you enjoy it."

She smiled softly at him. "Oh Zack. Of _course_ I'll enjoy it."

She leaned over, pressing a kiss just above his navel, while she slid the zipper down.

"My book is _very_ detailed."

Zack was right about his non-existent staying power, but he kept this promise, and Aerith enjoyed it fully.

.o0|0o.

Aerith insisted he take the box of letters upstairs with him once they finally made it back to the house. She was on the other side of the wall, separated by Elmyra coming out of her first-floor room to wish them good night, and standing there watching them…

He sat on the bed, in the dark, and stared at them. A simple box wrapped with a cord.

His past, and yet, somehow, also his future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: My apologies for the delay. I'm learning how to DM. For a group of 5 players... Over Discord. At least there's only 2 time zones. /sigh
> 
> I should also mention that this is self-beta'ed. If you spot any typos or tense shifts, or anything else that takes you out of the story, please let me know.


	7. Ganging Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud meets Aerith and is impressed (and maybe a little jealous.) They fight monsters.

Cloud wished he could blame Shinra for his inability to sleep in. They were responsible for a lot of his other problems, after all.

Truth was his ma used to get him up even earlier than the drill sergeants in basic. There was always lots to do when you weren't hooked up to mako power and there weren't a dozen stores and restaurants down the block. When he was big enough (which in Nibelheim, meant around four) he'd started his mornings bringing in wood for the stove and gathering eggs from the chickens. As he got older, it was finding the wood, and hunting up breakfast. A decade later and a continent away, he'd still woken up when morning was barely a twinkle in Odin's eye. But in Shinra, when his fellow recruits were whining at reveille, Cloud had lain on his bed and enjoyed the luxury of just lying there.

He still enjoyed lying in bed having nothing to do, but he could only do it for so long before he wanted to be up and moving. Despite Andy's exquisite sheets and lovely body, Cloud had just about reached his limit.

Cloud showered and dressed, not bothering to sneak around, but Andy barely stirred. Leaning over the dancer, Cloud gave him a kiss. Andy sighed groggily but didn't wake.

Andrea Rhodea looked years younger asleep. Almost innocent though from what Cloud knew of their childhood, neither of the Rhodea kids had had that. Part of Cloud wished things could be different, but after so many years, he accepted that it was what it was and no more.

His boots and his sword he put on once he reached the couches downstairs. Nesime was the day receptionist. Burlier than Luka, she could handle customers who didn't want to leave, or wanted a discount, or any of the other stupid things that came with morning-after regrets.

Cloud nodded at her. He'd actually recommended her for the position after watching her in the ring at Jules' gym.

As he was bent over, doing up his boots, Director Palmer, a Shinra director of… something, edged past the reception desk heading for the back door. As if everybody and their cats didn't know Palmer spent half his paycheque at the Inn. A lonely old man with some pretty harmless kinks – why bother sneaking out?

Cloud left by the front door. One of the joys of being an under-the-plate nobody was that he could live life the way he wanted. No rules, no regulations, and if a person disapproved, Cloud could just walk away.

He nodded at the garbage pickers, out collecting anything of value that last night's revelers might have dropped - and sometimes what they hadn't dropped but were too drunk to defend. They wouldn't kill anyone, would actually make sure the drunks were on their sides and breathing. Don Corneo had a rule about killing the tourists, and it was 'don't'. Probably about the only thing on which Cloud would ever agree with him.

The restaurants were also open. Even the dumpling place had a version of greasy breakfast that the desperately hung-over could queasily devour.

Cloud went to the hole-in-the-wall next to the laundry shop. There was actually a door between the two shops since they were run by two brothers-in-law. Cloud appreciated the convenience. He also appreciated that it was less busy than the places on the main thoroughfare.

"You find anything interesting out in the wastes?" Mong, the brother-in-law in charge asked.

Cloud smiled. He sure as hell had.

As he made his way to Sam's stables, it occurred to Cloud how weird it was to be making plans with a guy he'd only known for a day. Maybe Fair would want to stay with his girl, and Cloud would be interrupting. Maybe Fair would forget. Why the hells would Fair want to hang around with _him_?

Goat balls, Cloud thought, running his fingers through Deza's crest and making sure the lock on his travel chest hadn't been tampered with.

Well, he'd promised, so he'd show up and see if Zack showed up too.

Decided, Cloud swung up onto Deza's back and set the green to climb the wall of debris around Sam's yard. Deza, warking happily, ascended the steep slope as easily as if it were level ground. Cloud laughed with him. It _was_ nice to just run full out – do what your body was made for.

The top of the expressway probably wasn't the safest place to go full speed, but Cloud let Deza run. They ran past the boundfats and the gorgers, and they leapt over chasms and ravines, and they reached Sector 5's outskirts in half the time it would've taken them on the road. Three quick hops and they were on the road with its mud and metal plates, and its people. Sector 5 was much livelier than Wall Market. Probably because the residents hadn't been drunk off their asses the night before.

Reluctantly, Cloud dismounted and led Deza along the main thoroughfare.

"Heya Cloud!" It was Oates, leading a horde of children. "Is that your chocobo?"

That led to Cloud giving a bunch of kids an impromptu lesson on chocobo care. He had Deza kneel and the kids groomed (petted) his neck and crest. They were actually decent with the bird, so Cloud let them sit in the saddle and explained how to hold the reins, and how to use their legs to steer.

"Oh! There's Ms Folia!" shouted one of the kids. That led to a general panic about being late, but of course, they still called her over "to pet the chocobo".

He recognized her. She recognized him. They politely let the kids introduce them anyway. She cooed and praised, and then shooed them all back to Leaf House. They ran off, happy with the unusual start to the day.

"You won't tell them, will you?"

"You're a good dancer," he said in response. "Since all you do is dance, why be ashamed?"

"I _do_ love it," she said. "But nobody will believe that I only dance."

Cloud snorted, half in exasperation. "Sex work is just another job," he said. "That's what my ma always said."

She looked at him curiously. "That's… not an attitude most people have."

Cloud shrugged. "You know I grew up in a small town, yah?" She nodded. "Was only me and my ma long's I can remember, and she was young when she had me." Ms Folia nodded again, paying attention. "She said guys in the village would come around offering food 'n' stuff in exchange for sex. Like, since she'd had a kid but no husband, she must be available. She kept saying no. Some decided she wanted marriage first and offered that." He looked at her. "If she'd said yes to any of them, how would it've been different from an exchange of gil?"

Ms Folia frowned, hopefully in thought, but in the end did it matter? He wasn't the morals police.

"Got no reason to tell anyone here about anything." he said.

She grabbed his hand. " _Thank you_! And thank you for clearing out the monsters in the kid's 'secret club'."

Cloud shrugged again. He'd gotten paid for that job. The little moogle kid had a helluva market and Cloud had picked up a scarf that would be good when travelling outside Midgar. Always colder away from the plates and mako reactors.

After she'd left, Cloud went to the corner where Chadley had set up yesterday. The kid wasn't there today, but Cloud wasn't worried. Chadley'd turn up somewhere.

He ground tied Deza and went in search of coffee. He'd spotted a decent looking place yesterday, so that's where he went. There was a small line up of chatty people. By the time he got back to his chocobo, Zack and his girl were there.

Cloud hid the huge relief he felt by taking a sip of his coffee. It was too hot. He burned his tongue, and frantically puffed air in an attempt to miraculously reverse time or something, so he wouldn't feel like an idiot when he reached them.

Zack was still wearing the hideous T-shirt and shirt combination from yesterday, but he'd acquired the drab grey-green work pants just about every guy under the plate wore. They made the T-shirt look even brighter. The girl – young woman (Tifa would smack him for defaulting to 'girl') – wore a simple blue dress decorated with ribbons and flowers. She carried a hefty staff, and Cloud could see the glint of green and gold materia in the sockets.

She looked at Fair as if her dreams had fallen from the heavens – also like she wanted to get him naked immediately.

Zack looked like he'd float if gravity wasn't a thing. Also looked a helluva lot more relaxed than he had yesterday.

Cloud said. "Hava good night?" The two of them looked at each other, then away, then they both blushed redder than bombs. "Guess the reunion went okay," Cloud said dryly.

The woman – Aerith – broke out in giggles. Zack rubbed a hand over his hair. It looked like he'd slept on it wet.

"So whadya wanna do today?" Cloud asked once formal introductions were completed.

"I thought we could go get that drake hide," Zack said.

Cloud cut a look at Aerith. She didn't look like much of a fighter, but then, most people didn't think Cloud looked like much of one either. He was a head taller than his mother, which still didn't make him tall.

"Odd thing to do for a date," is all he said though.

"Well…" Aerith said with a sweet smile that raised all sorts of alarms. "If someone comes after my boyfriend, I need to know how to protect him, right?"

She was smaller than Cloud, and Zack topped _him_ by a head. "Riiiight."

"Plus I promised Mr Karr that my big, strong boyfriend would clear out the cemetery, so he could get in to visit his wife, and it turns out the place the drakes always go to isn't much past that.

"Uh huh." Cloud turned to Zack brow raised.

"Well, you said mercenary work." Zack looked sheepish.

"Mercenaries get paid," Cloud pointed out.

Zack shot a look at his girlfriend who smiled even sweeter. "Uh, chickens and potions sometimes, right? I'm good with that."

"Right." Cloud _had_ said that. "Let me stable Deza. He's a good bird, but not battle trained."

"We'll grab some supplies!" Zack grinned.

"Actually, you're gonna come with me," Cloud said. "The chocobo stand should be deserted and I've got some extra materia that could be useful."

"Really?" Aerith said. "How many do you have?"

Cloud looked around at the growing crowd. "Enough." He started walking back to the S5-6 Road, and the two love birds followed, holding hands and practically skipping.

"I borrowed Mom's Ice materia. It belonged to her husband, and I found this other one a year ago," she announced to the world. "I'm not sure I'm using it right, though."

"I said she could practice on us," Zack added.

Cloud resisted the urge to sigh. He jerked his chin at her staff. "Know what kind it is?"

"Uhh, healing?"

Both Cloud and Zack were shaking their heads. "Healing materia is green," Zack said. "Unless that's changed since… Since I left SOLDIER."

"Still green," Cloud confirmed. He held out a hand. "May I?"

Aerith looked to Zack who nodded. She popped out the gold materia and handed it to Cloud. He stopped for a moment, closing his eyes and _feeling_ for the materia's purpose. When he realized what it was, his eyebrows popped up.

"That's Prayer," he said.

"That's good, is it?" Zack asked.

"Yah. Heals everybody around you," Cloud said. "Pretty weak still, but it'll be powerful once leveled."

"So I wasn't wrong that it was a healing materia," Aerith pointed out. She gave Cloud a cheeky grin.

"Good instincts," is all he said in reply.

At the chocobo stand, Cloud unlocked his saddlebags and opened his materia holder. He didn't have a tonne, but they were good battle materia. He took out Barrier.

"Each person has an affinity to magic. Some people are better with healing and support and they can feel those kinds of materia better. Not scientific, but it works." He held out the green materia. "Try this."

Aerith gave her staff to Zack and held the materia in both hands. She frowned at it. Rolled it around on her palms. She looked up. "It's protection, right?"

Cloud nodded. "Barrier. Right now, only protects against physical attacks, but soon it should protect against magic attacks some."

"How do you know that?" Zack looked fascinated.

"Experience," Cloud laughed. "Natural materia's not like that stuff Shinra made. It… Not _learns_ , but something like it. Gets better? More practiced? Just easier to use so you can do more with it."

"Doesn't all materia do that?" Aerith asked.

While Cloud had them go through his materia, checking for the ones that fit them best, Zack explained how Shinra had used a machine to transform liquid mako into pre-determined materia using an artificial 'seed', and how they'd worked out ways to force two materias to combine to create new ones, or more powerful versions of old ones. All the while, Aerith's nose stayed wrinkled, as if she smelled something bad.

"I used to have the coolest materia," Zack said wistfully. "I had one, Aerial Plus. I'd jump up, come down like a grenade - deal damage and gain health at the same time. I had it equipped when I went to Nibelheim. Wasn't in my sword when I got out, though."

"Last I heard, mosta that manufactured materia broke down. Evaporated or exploded. _Poof._ " Cloud smiled. "For a while after that, could sell any piece of shit materia to Shinra for just about anything I asked."

Zack perked up. "Yeah? What did you sell 'em?" he asked knowingly.

"Steal, and an item thing I never did figure out how to use." Cloud said with a smile. "More picky now, course. Got their own people out looking, too."

In the end, Cloud loaned Aerith his Steadfast Block and Barrier materias to go with her Ice and Prayer. Zack got First Strike, Counterattack and HP Up. Cloud kept Fire, Comet, Healing, and Magic Up. Those weren't the best combinations, but considering Zack gave his HP Absorption to his girlfriend, Cloud figured his job would be to protect Aerith while Zack went full SOLDIER on anything that threatened her.

Their trip back through the village was filled with greetings to Aerith, which he'd expected.

There were also quite a few to Zack, which he hadn't. Most were along the lines of "Where you been?" and "I thought you'd deserted us for life on the beach at Costa Del Sol!" Or, once, "It's about time you came back. You nearly broke that girl's heart!"

Cloud gave Zack a sideways look. "You didn't tell me you were famous."

Aerith giggled and leaned into Zack's side. "He used to come down here all the time to clean out monsters and help around town."

"Probably trying to impress you," Cloud said.

"Hey. It was fun!" Zack protested. "Being impressive was just a bonus." He smiled down at his girlfriend and she gave him a small kiss. There was a look between them that confirmed Cloud's suspicion that they'd had some intimate fun times last night.

Good for them.

Once outside the sector, Aerith led them to the right off the S4-5 Road. The path through the garbage and debris was well-worn. It had obviously been here a long time. Unlike the main road, however, nobody was loitering on it.

"There's usually gorgers and other things along here," Aerith said, swinging Zack's left – non‑fighting – hand "And sometimes old Shinra mechanical units activate and start attacking passerbys. But that doesn't happen _too_ often.

"You know Shinra is full of assholes who don't care about the planet when they leave equipment using thousands of gil of resources lying around forgotten," Cloud muttered in disgust, looking at a rusty bulldozer.

Maybe Barrett Wallace was rubbing off on him a little.

"If we could get any of it running, could we sell it?" Zack asked, jumping up to look in the cockpit.

"Hmmm." It was a good question, but not one that Cloud had ever asked. He didn't feel bad though. He didn't have much to do with machines, so it wouldn't have occurred to him.

Aerith looked up as Zack sat in the driver's seat. "Who would buy it?"

Zack shrugged. "Anybody down here who's building stuff or clearing stuff out?"

At first, all Cloud could think of was that development beside Corneo's mansion that the gang boss had killed. But there was Sector 8, which had a few small factories, or even Sector 7 – less salvage, but in need of more room again.

"Maybe," he said. "Could be a couple places."

"Could they afford it?" Aerith asked.

Cloud shrugged. "Not like we'd be paying anything for it."

Zack laughed and jumped down. "So it wouldn't matter what we charged. I like it!" Aerith gave him another kiss for that.

"Shinra might object though," Cloud warned the ex-SOLDIER.

Zack's smile turned sour. "Well, since Shinra took my old life, seems only fair they fund my new one."

Cloud smirked back. He understood that motive completely.

"It would be nice if we could expand the town," Aerith piped up. "Give people a bit more room to live."

Cloud saw Zack's face as the SOLDIER looked down at her, and figured if Zack managed to get one running, the first thing he'd do is whatever Aerith wanted. She must've seen it too because she suddenly wanted another kiss or three. Or more.

Cloud gave them two paces distance and kept his eyes out for anything that felt like jumping out at the couple and spoiling their reunion.

Once they were moving again it didn't take them long to reach their first destination. There was something like a covered bridge and then Aerith turned to the right. "The cemetery is up here."

The cemetery was more of an open field with memorials lining the edges. Huddled in one corner in the shade were three… They looked like gorgers but bigger. And with wicked long talons, like a praying mantis.

"Know what these are?" Cloud asked.

"Uhh, ugly?" Zack answered.

Before Cloud could even roll his eyes, they were spotted. The three creatures split up and slithered towards them faster than mutated centipedes should.

"Aerith! Barrier!" Cloud commanded, pulling Iron Blade in front of him. He felt the magic in the air around him harden.

Zack charged forward, taking the one in the middle. He swung, staggering the creature – an impressive hit. Then the one on the left quivered and Cloud just knew it was going to jump. "Move!" he shouted at Aerith.

He rolled forward and used the momentum to slash at it. Its skin was harder than Cloud had hoped, and Iron Blade mostly bounced off it. "Balls," he muttered, and cast Fira. The creature flinched but not for long.

In of the corner of his eye, he saw Zack doing some high-momentum swings that ended with the buster sword slamming into his target. The thing was definitely hurt after that, but still not out.

A stream of cold air flashed past him – Aerith casting Blizzard. The bug-thing in front of him gained an instant coat of ice, and when the ice shattered it pulled chunks of flesh with it. The creature shrieked – in pain or fury, Cloud didn't care.

"It's weak to Ice!" he shouted. He heard Aerith's acknowledgement.

Cloud did his own fancy swinging. With each hit he felt his power building. He got stronger and stronger until he felt like he would burst with it.

"One down!" Zack yelled.

He did his own version of Zack's power attack, thrusting straight ahead, trying to find a chink in the creatures hide.

Find it he did. Iron Blade slide in and the thing wavered.

It opened its mouth, but it didn't shriek like Cloud had expected. Instead it spewed out a milky mist that surrounded Cloud.

All his energy, all his power, seeped away.

He was so tired…

"Hey, hey! None of that." Cloud heard Zack's voice but couldn't respond.

He didn't see the monster move, but he felt it. It felt like he'd been hit in the chest with a boulder. He could feel his body flying, falling, tumbling, but he could do nothing.

Cloud felt another blast of cold air shoot past him. It was the cold that snapped Cloud out of whatever funk he'd been in.

"Good one, Aerith!" Zack shouted.

Just in time too. One of the things – the last one, he noted – had flipped up its tail and was shooting… Cloud dove out of the way. Where he'd been standing was a pile of webbing.

Zack came at it from the side, angling his huge blade to hit the back of its head rather than the armoured front or shoulder. Cloud, out of melee range, cast another Fira. Aerith followed with another Blizzard and really hurt it.

Recognizing where the real threat lay, the monster turned on Aerith. It quivered, getting ready to leap…

Zack lifted the buster sword to his shoulder and straight up punched it. Cloud could practically see the stars circling its tiny head.

Cloud was already swinging his sword. It impacted with the ground and a shock wave shot toward the creature. This time its belly split, and it toppled over. One last weak spasm before it stilled completely. Moments later, its body dissolved into the Lifestream.

"Oh yeah!" Zack punched the air with his fist.

"Well, _that_ was exciting," Aerith said, moving up to stand beside Cloud.

"Too bad we didn't get any scales," Cloud said. "Woulda made good armour."

The warm tingles of a healing spell infused him. It felt different than a Cura though. He looked at Zack and the spell sparkles were gold.

"Woah! Was that Prayer?" Zack asked, bounding over to his girlfriend to pick her up and twirl her a couple time. Aerith's answering smile was buoyant with pride and adrenaline.

Cloud stretched out his neck and torso. Everything felt fully healed. "Nice materia."

Once they'd settled down some, Zack stared at the web-covered cliffs, hands on hips.

When the guy stood like that, Cloud didn't see the neon T-shirt, or the drab-green worker's pants. He saw the SOLDIER uniform. He saw the hero. SOLDIER First Class, Zackary Fair, leader of men, fighter of evil.

Would a guy like that, one who'd had dreams like that, be content taking on low-level monsters under the plate?

"We should make sure they didn't leave any egg sacs or anything," Zack said.

"That's a good idea," Aerith agreed. "How do we get up there?"

Zack grinned at her. "Easy!" and then he jumped.

They watched Zack swing at the patches of webbing. "Are you impressed yet?" Cloud asked her.

"Mm-hmm." He could hear the smile, and the lust – and a hint of fond mockery. "Are you?"

Cloud looked at her, wondering if she'd guessed that Cloud was admiring more than Zack's swordplay. "I already knew what SOLDIERs could do."

Aerith turned to look at him. "But Zack isn't just another SOLDIER, is he." She walked over to one of the webbed patches nearer the ground and poked at it. Cloud tensed, but a horde of baby monsters didn't crawl out and attack her.

Still, he moved closer. "Let me poke," he said. "You be ready with Blizzard."

They went round the edge, poking the clumps of webbing until the end of Cloud's sword was sticky white. Only one pile had an egg sac, but the contents weren't anywhere near viable. Cloud cut it open and Aerith blasted it with Blizzard. Cloud followed with Fira, just to be sure.

In the middle of the wall was a deeper recess. Cloud could see the memorial stones stacked one in front of the other.

"Do you want to say a prayer?" Aerith asked, hands clasped in front of her.

Cloud, trying to burn the web off his sword, shook his head. "No thanks. Looks like you got it covered."

Zack joined them for the second half of the webbed lower half. He was twice as flashy as they'd been. He'd do short hops then little spin and slash combos. "I used to have this move, Assault Twister," he said while he regained his balance. "I should be able to do it again, right? Even without the materia?"

Cloud shrugged – hell if he knew – but Aerith piped up with some encouraging words and Zack went back to hopping and twirling like a madman. The former-SOLDIER got a little enthusiastic and stumbled over his own feet.

"Less impressed now," Cloud whispered to Aerith. She burst out laughing.

On the way to the next target, in between Zack and Aerith's kissing, they swapped around the materia. He gave Aerith the Fire and Magic Up, and he took back the Healing and Barrier. "I can't jump six metres into the air to fight a drake, and my magic power is only decent," he said in explanation.

Zack talked tactics, and Aerith poked gentle fun, and Cloud watched them both while keeping an eye out for anything of interest. There was _so_ much stuff here; more than he'd realized. He'd never be able to salvage it, but Niam in Sector 7 had a large crew and contacts in Sector 8...

"Anybody got salvage claim on this area?" he asked, breaking up their latest cooing session.

"Claim?" Aerith asked. Zack was sniffing her hair. She didn't seem to mind.

"Yah. Anybody got a crew combing through this, or is it casual?" Cloud said. "Lotta good stuff here. All this metal? Could be melted down, turned into something useful."

"We don't have anything like that," Aerith finally said.

Cloud nodded. "Know a guy who does salvage. Could maybe run a crew – local hires so the gil stays here. Won't suggest it if people in the sector'll get upset though.

"Hmmm." She frowned as she thought. "I know who to talk to, but I don't know what they'll say."

Cloud shrugged. "All you can do is ask."

Zack was smiling. "Is your 'guy' one of the people who hire you to take out monsters?"

"Yah," Cloud said. "Animals are always moving into scrap yards and abandoned factories. And around Midgar, they're always aggressive."

"Huh," they both said. Aerith frowned at him. "Why is that?"

"Gotta friend who says it's the reactors," Cloud replied. "Pulling all the mako out of the ground. Makes it unhealthy. Changes the behaviour."

"Mutates them," Zack murmured.

"Yah," Cloud nodded.

"Do you believe it?" Zack asked.

Cloud jerked his chin towards the east, towards Kalm and the fertile plains that filled the rest of the continent. "Out there, even large rats'll run when humans approach."

"Here they attack," Aerith said softly.

"Hmm," Cloud nodded. "Same at Nibelheim. Mountain rats attacking wolves and people."

"I didn't notice anything at Gongaga, but…" Zack shook his head. "I wouldn't have thought it weird. It was just the way it was, you know?"

"Everyone in Midgar thinks this is the way it is, the way it'll always be," Cloud said.

"They don't have the same kind of monster problems above the plate," Zack said. "Or at least they didn't four year ago."

"I've never seen any," Aerith said. "Do you think they know what might be happening?"

Zack gave a bitter laugh. "Better questions is would they care even if they did know? Shinra's rotten," he said. "Attacking Wutai… At the time I didn't question it, but now? All Wutai did was refuse to let Shinra build a mako reactor. With what they did to me, to all the creatures in Hojo's labs, they're probably evil, too. I was part of that." He crossed his arms, rubbing at the exposed skin as if he were cold.

Aerith snuggled right in, lifting one of Zack's arms to drape over her shoulder, offering silent comfort. Cloud limited himself to a firm clasp on the taller man's shoulder.

By the time they reached the clearing drakes liked to commandeer, the ex-SOLDIER had shaken off the bleakness. He went over the tactics with them again, repeating what they'd already decided at the cemetery. He was nervous. A drake, even a young one, wasn't a fight to take lightly, and his inexperienced, untrained, girlfriend was along for the fight, so Cloud forgave him the fussing.

The area they'd been told to look for drakes was large, scattered about with rusting machinery. A river ran through the right-hand side, and tough grasses grew through the concrete. The sides of the man-made valley were shored up with thick corrugated-metal sheets, probably ten metres high. It was the perfect place to fight a small dragon.

They all looked up, but the sky was empty.

"Damn it," Zack muttered. He strode out towards the centre of the field, past a pile of machinery.

As if he were a magnet, the machinery shook. Belching out black smoke it roared to life. Cloud recognized it: a smogger. Same thing he'd fought yesterday in the kids' hideout.

"Ah hells," Zack groaned. He pulled his sword from his back. "Time to get casting, peoples!"

Obediently, Cloud cast Barrier on them all, starting with Zack who was already rushing at the machine. This time, however, the First's powerful attack didn't seem to faze their target.

"Watch out for its smoke," Cloud shouted. "Poisonous."

Aerith cast the magic built into her staff. It didn't seem to do anything either. They needed Lightning materia for these things, but they didn't have it, so they'd have to make do.

Zack was attacking from the front, so Cloud darted in and attacked from behind. He couldn't match the sheer strength of the SOLDIER's attacks, so he targeted joints, exposed wires, anything that could be a weak spot.

Cloud could still see Zack, though. The guy was quick, wielding the huge blade with a graceful finesse built on years of familiarity. It was like watching Andy dance – mesmerizing. It also was a reminder of Cloud's childhood dream to become a SOLDIER. A reminder he didn't need.

Cold air blasted the machine – once, twice. Faster than should be possible.

Cloud risked a glance at Aerith. The ground around her glowed with swirling colours. "Huh." That went beyond a simple 'affinity' to magic.

The smogger made a grinding coughing sound. "Careful!" Cloud shouted, shifted so he was firmly behind the exhaust pipe.

Zack wasn't so well placed.

He came down from his fancy jump move just at the machine coughed out a flume of purple‑black smoke. It clung to Zack's exposed skin. It clung to the ground and sparked when Zack touched, leeching blood from him.

Zack stumbled.

Sensing weakness, the machine rumbled forward, one arm raised to strike.

Cloud redoubled his attack, focusing on the legs. There had to be some vulnerability!

It swung, knocking Zack back and into more of the noxious gas. The ex-SOLDIER coughed, shook his head, and lifted his sword as if to attack.

The blade wavered and wobbled. Zack coughed again.

"Zack. Move!" he yelled, and Zack wobbled off to the side, glittering with Aerith's healing Prayer.

Cloud let out a breath, focusing inward. He didn't use this materia much. It took a lot out of him and he rarely took on anything that needed its power. He'd make an exception to save a friend, though. He yelled, "Incoming!" and cast Comet.

Out of nothing, a giant, super-heated rock formed in the sky above them. It got bigger as it fell, gaining mass and speed. Cloud ran to Zack, pulling the guy farther out of the way. "What the hells?" Zack blinked at Comet's brightness.

It landed on top of the smogger, and the machine lost arms, and huge chunks of its torso. The exhaust pipe tumbled to the ground and sparks flew everywhere.

"Need to smash the processor, else it'll rebuild," Cloud said. He cast a quick Cure on his new friend before heading back towards the crippled machine.

It was still standing, but its torso had been sheered on a diagonal. The weight of its one remaining arm pulled it to the side, so it stepped-staggered in small circles, popping and hissing as it moved.

Cloud shoved Iron Blade into the shoulder joint. Sparks flew.

Zack was right behind him. He raised the buster over his head and used his whole body to bring it down on what was left of the machine. The rusted metal parted as if it were paper.

The smogger stopped trying to walk and started vibrating in place. There was a sound – high pitched and getting higher.

"Shit," Cloud shouted. "Self-destruct!"

Again, he pulled Zack away from the machine. This time he dragged the SOLDIER toward Aerith. They all ran towards a shallow dip in the wall and huddled together behind the corner. Zack had his buster up, shielding the exposed side with the wide surface. Cloud cast Barrier on Aerith but didn't have time to cast it on anyone else before the smogger's central unit blew.

Bits of jagged metal, large and small shot out, embedding themselves into the wall with brutal force. Cloud heard the ting of metal hitting the buster sword. He heard Zack exhale sharply and figured a piece had gotten past the blade.

Eventually, the shrapnel stopped falling.

Cloud let Aerith go and they uncurled from their defensive crouches.

"Where did you get hit?" Aerith demanded of Zack.

Zack grimaced. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about your dad's pants." He turned to lean against the wall, and showed them a sheet of metal, maybe a hand-span in size, half buried in his calf. "Also, 'ow'?"

"Pull it out?" Cloud asked.

"Yes please."

Cloud handed Aerith his Healing materia. "Cast Cure as soon as the metal's cleared the skin."

She looked pale but determined. She hadn't wavered once during either battle. Zack had lucked out it so many ways.

"On three?" Cloud looked up at Zack who nodded.

Zack leaned his head back, breathing in controlled pants. "Ready."

"One– Two–"

Cloud pulled out the shrapnel. Immediately, Zack calf was surrounded by the green sparkles of a cast Cure. They sank into the wound. The blood stopped and the skin sealed, leaving only a pinkish-white line. It was almost as if nothing had happened.

"Mother _fuck_ -" Zack ground out. "You would be that kind of asshole."

Cloud smiled and shrugged. It worked.

Zack shook his leg a little. "I'm going to walk this off a little," and he hop-walked in a small circle not unlike the way the smogger had done earlier.

Cloud left him to Aerith and went back to the machine. Its guts, what was left of them, were smoking. He looked for the central core, but it was impossible to identify. He started stomping on every fragment he could see, just in case.

"No dragon today, huh." Zack gave a larger shard a sharp kick. It went skittering across the broken pavement.

"Can try in Sector 7," Cloud suggested. "They like this old factory just north of the residential area."

"We'll see," Zack said. "I should probably get Aerith back to her place. This was a little too dangerous for her."

"Hey!" she protested. "I helped!"

"She did," Cloud agreed, stomping on another bit.

"Thank you!" she said to Cloud. She turned to Zack. "I would very much like to go to Sector 7, and if you won't take me, I'm sure Cloud will."

It was amusing to watch the big SOLDIER backpedal and stammer.

"Sam's got a stop there," Cloud pointed out. "Limited runs, because of the gate."

Zack's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Fine," he said. He pointed his finger at Aerith. "But _you_ have to tell your mother it was _your_ idea."

Cloud had to hand it to Aerith: she was sweet even in total victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon goes back and forth about the wall between Sector 7 and Wall Market. "It's impassable!" Yet there's a gate that opens to let Tifa through in Sam's wagon, so which is it? I'm choosing it opens a few times a day. (This also explains where all the revellers come from, since Sector 5 is small and poor.) Let me know if you have any alternate theories!


	8. New Beginnings Aren't Easy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monsters aren't the only things Zack has to fight. But things are better than they were a year ago. Weirder, but better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Skuld on Discord for for pointing out some unintentional racism in my depiction of the Wutai transplants. I fixed it.

It didn't take long to get to Sector 7. The chocobos hitched to the cart kept up a smooth lope that ate the distance and was (in Zack's opinion) a lot nicer that being on the back of one. Cloud would probably still beat them though. He'd just pointed his green chocobo at the mountains of debris and ran up and over. Quick, efficient – kinda cool. Zack still preferred the cart.

Of course, part of that might've been Aerith sitting on his lap.

There were good reasons for this. The wagon was crowded. Only way to fit everyone in, yadda yadda. He didn't care. He just wrapped his arms around her and enjoyed her wicked little smile as she shifted her behind on his crotch a little more than the uneven road required.

Most of the travellers got off at Wall Market, eliminating Aerith's excuse to be on his lap, but there were enough people still on that Zack had to hold Galatine's wide blade in front of himself until he cooled down. Aerith gave him a happy, knowing wink that had Zack's smile growing bigger than the bulge in his pants.

Aerith sat very close and they chatted softly about what Sector 7 might be like in between some kissing. A skinny old dude in the other corner of the wagon looked at them in disapproval, but they ignored him.

The next stop was the old playground they used to go to. Judging by the crowd, it was still a popular spot. A few people got off; a couple people got on. And then they were at the Sector 7 gate. It was so close to the playground that Zack couldn't help but wonder why they'd never gone there before. And then they waited for the gate to open… and waited.

Even Aerith's presence was failing to distract Zack from the discomfort of fitting his 190 cm frame into a low-roofed wooden cart. Finally, at exactly noon, an alarm on the gate finally rang. The sound of large gears starting to move drowned out all conversation. The gate started moving, inching open. It was a massive slab of metal and it took ages for it to creak wide enough for the cart to get through.

No wonder the Sector 7 run only happened five times a day.

They were dropped off close to a chain-link gate guarded by a couple helmeted infantrymen. They had to wait for the older corporal to dig the keycard out of his uniform, walk over to the reader, and wave the card in front of it. Then the gate had to be unhitched and pushed open – slowly so the squeaking wheels didn't pull out of the tracks. Every step silently informed the crowd that opening the fence was a massive inconvenience.

Nobody cared. As soon as it was open wide enough the passengers were sliding through to the residential areas of Sector 7, sliding past the disgruntled guard. Others pushed the other way, groups of young people heading to Wall Market to party or work.

He and Aerith waited until the initial rush passed. They weren't in a hurry, and if anyone bumped his sword, they'd end up injured for sure. When the gate was wide enough, he offered his arm to Aerith and she wrapped her strong hands around it, and they ambled through.

Zack knew the moment the guards spotted the sword, but he ignored them, and they ignored him, and none of them caused problems for the other.

The entry point was a fairly big area with corrugated tin and chain-link fencing separating it from the wastelands. Just this one bit matched the lower half of Sector 5 in size. There were a couple broken down trucks across the way, with armed guards near them that had Zack's eyebrows lifting.

There was a constant stream of suit-wearers passing through and Zack recognized the clothing as the unofficial uniform worn by most of Shinra's office worker army.

A sign said that there was a train station close by, so did that mean that these were Shinra workers commuting to and from the plate? It made him curious because Shinra had housed all their workers above-the-plate five years ago. It was one of the perks of the job. Why had that changed? If he stopped one a random secretary or bureaucrat, would they tell him? Would they recognize him?

He put the question aside to ask Cloud later.

Because it was a busy throughway, there were shops trying to catch the worker bees and entice them into spending some of their gil. There was also food and it was past lunch.

Zack looked at the menu boards. It was a little pricier here than in Sector 5, but the offerings were also more varied, with menu items not native to the eastern continent. Zack mentally tallied up his depressingly small amount of gil and regretfully decided to hold off on buying lunch.

"Wanna browse the shops?" he asked Aerith.

She smiled and said yes, and after that it was kind of like the first day they met. They went from shop to shop and Aerith looked at the wares and haggled gently when she found something she wanted. The shopkeepers here were just as helpless against her relentless good will as the ones in Sector 5.

Zack smiled and watched and made sure that she got to enjoy the experience without being hassled.

The pink ribbon in her hair bobbed as she spoke. It looked like the same ribbon he'd given her that day, but it had been nearly six years. How long did fabric last? It had to be new…

Zack decided it didn't matter if it was the original or a replacement. She was wearing his ribbon just like she'd promised. He leaned down and gave it a kiss. She smiled up at him absently, but quickly returned to her negotiations.

Aerith was looking at dresses when Zack recognized a suit coming from the direction of the train station. _That_ colour and cut didn't belong to a worker bee.

He wondered if he should try hiding in the shop he was currently in front of, and then realized that would be stupid. He was big, the shop was small, and the Turks already knew he was alive anyway.

He watched Cissnei and another female Turk, one he'd never seen before, trying to look like they were just the same as everyone else – just one in a crowd. To Zack, at least, it was obvious they didn't belong, but nobody else was watching them or even edging away.

Cissnei finally felt his eyes on her. She looked up, looked surprised, and then smiled – a small smile, but just as true as the one she'd given him that night on the coast. Quietly and efficiently, she pulled her companion out of the passing stream. Her pace didn't vary – neither excitement nor fear was revealed in her step as she walked over to where Zack stood. She stopped, close enough to be heard, but far enough away to have room to draw a weapon if needed. Cissnei had always been a very good Turk.

She looked up at him. "Zack. Interesting shirt," she said. "It's good to see you despite it."

Zack's eyebrows went up. "Is it?"

"Actually, yes." She gave that same small smile. "There was a great deal of upset in the office when the army reported your death."

"Riiiight."

She ignored his sarcasm. "When Reno reported your survival, it was a great relief."

"Hello Cissnei," Aerith said, joining them. "You look well."

"Thank you, Aerith." Cissnei dipped her head. "So do you."

"Well, you know…" Aerith twirled her hair. "It helps when your declared-dead boyfriend turns out to be not-so-dead after all."

The Turk beside Cissnei inhaled as if surprised at Aerith's caustic comment. Zack decided she had to be new to be giving so much away. She was taller than Cissnei (but most people were), with blonde hair cut asymmetrically short, and brown eyes. She looked familiar, but also not.

"Who's your friend?" He jerked his chin at the newbie.

"Uhh," Blondie said.

"This is Elena," Cissnei said. "Elena, this is Zack Fair, formerly of SOLDIER, and Aerith Gainsborough."

Aerith held out her hand. "I'm a Priority 1 Asset, so you'll probably be assigned to watch me at some point."

"Oh, uh. Wow. You're much prettier than your pictures!"

Zack burst out laughing. It was fun to watch a Turk – even a young, inexperienced one – stammer and blush like a regular person.

Cissnei dipped her face, embarrassed for the newbie. Aerith just smiled. "Thank you. I don't suppose anybody looks their best in covert surveillance photos." Her arm was tight against his back. It braced Zack. Maybe it braced her, too.

"So what brings you to Sector 7?" Zack asked. "And don't say us." He flicked his finger between him and Aerith. "You weren't looking for us when you got off the train."

"Eco-terrorists," Elena said. "Like Avalanche."

Aerith frowned. "I though Avalanche was destroyed months ago. The news said they were the reason some of the Sector 6 plate collapsed."

Again, Elena-the-innocent blushed and stammered and tried to backtrack out of the conversation. Cissnei sighed. "We heard rumours that a splinter group has formed."

"And that's a bad thing..." Aerith's voice could've been mocking or it could've been honest curiosity. It was hard to tell with her.

"It's a bad thing if they try to blow up the reactors like the original group tried to do!"

Looking at the newbie Turk, Zack smiled his best 'meet the public' smile. "Seems to me that a lot of people think mako power isn't great for the planet. Most of my family – the ones that survived anyway. Well, they might, in fact, have a problem with Shinra's reactors."

They'd have a hard time arguing that one, he thought. Sure, his mom and dad were still alive, but he'd lost aunts and uncles and cousins when the reactor blew. (Cissnei might've warned him away from visiting his parents when he was near Gongaga, but he'd found other villagers to talk to, people who'd given him a list of the dead.)

Cissnei looked at him. Her expression seemed friendly and guileless, but she was still a Turk. Who knew what she saw in his face.

"Right now, we don't have any reason to be interested in an anonymous veteran returned to Midgar," Cissnei said. "No report exists on you. Please don't make Tseng have to change that."

Zack snorted. "No report," he said skeptically.

"No _official_ report then," she corrected. She paused, frowned and looked away briefly before straightening to look him in the eye. "Elena, why don't you go get us some yakisoba." It wasn't a request. Elena's eyes darted around the group, but she could do nothing but agree.

"Get mine with extra beef."

"I prefer extra vegetables," Aerith said with a fake smile.

Elana looked to Cissnei. The senior Turk nodded once, and Elena scurried away.

In unspoken agreement, they shifted further from the stores. Cissnei turned her back on the crowds and covered her mouth. "The Turks aren't what we used to be," she said.

Zack's eyebrows went up. "You're not Shinra's loyal attack dogs?"

It was Cissnei's turn to frown. "Our loyalty has been… strained, for quite some time," she said. "Right now, it's being bought with the lives of our absent team members. As long as we obey, they will not be killed."

"Holy shit," Zack murmured.

"Tseng will do what he can to protect both you and Ms Gainsborough," she went on. "But if you force him to choose between your lives and theirs…"

Zack's jaw clenched. It's what he'd told Aerith yesterday, what Tseng had said last night. Didn't make it any more pleasant to hear. "Understood." Beside him, Aerith was a steady wall of warmth. "It's a good thing I have no political bent then, isn't it." He managed a smile.

Cissnei nodded once. "A very good thing," she agreed seriously.

Then Elena was back with their noodles and Zack couldn't stand the idea of waiting there, with _them_ – forcing small talk like his life, Aerith's life, hadn't just been threatened. "Thanks for the noodles," he said. His smile was still tight and fake. "We'll just let you get on with your business. Keeping Shinra safe from the world."

"Uh," said Blondie. "Isn't it the other way –"

"It was nice to meet you, Elena," Aerith said in her brightest voice. "I'm sure we'll see you again."

All Cissnei did was nod. Then she and the baby Turk joined the latest load of Shinra employees heading home at the end of the day and disappeared.

Zack held his box of yakisoba. It smelled delicious, warm and spicy, but Zack's appetite was gone.

"Gonna eat that or just stare at it?" Cloud's voice made him jump.

"Cloud!" Aerith practically shouted. Maybe she'd been surprised too. "How long have you been here?"

Cloud grabbed the box from Zack's hand. "Recognized the suits. Thought I'd wait until you were finished."

"Not a fan of the Turks?" Zack asked, taking his noodles back.

"Is anyone who isn't one?"

Cloud had a point.

Zack opened the box and took a bite. As soon as it hit his tongue, he was ravenous. Seared beef covered in a rich Gongagan sauce… He gobbled the noodles down, barely pausing to chew.

"Do you need more?" Aerith held up her half-eaten box.

Zack realized he was trying to dig a tiny chunk of mushroom off the bottom of the empty box. He blushed. "Aaah, no. I'm good."

A small smile flickered across Cloud's lips. "C'mon then. I'll introduce you around."

As they left the square, Cloud told them that over seven thousand people lived in Sector 7, which made it huge compared to Sector 5. Most of the residents were Shinra employees who couldn't afford to live above the plate.

"Why is that?" Zack asked. "It's only been a handful of years since I left, and babies don't happen that fast."

"Sector 6 plate collapsed," Cloud said. "Shinra isn't rebuilding it, but people need a place to live. Train runs most often here. Also the closest sector to the sea, so this is home to lots of immigrants who don't qualify to live up top even with a job."

Apparently, Sector 7 had a whole area filled with Wutaian refugees, and street filled with ones from Gongaga. Fort Condor people had started to congregate, and Corel… It was Terra, but in miniature, which explained the spicy food offerings.

All around, Zack could hear the sounds of hammering and small machinery. Shouts of work crews were layered under that.

"So, if so many people are moving in, Zack could sell some of that equipment we found to the construction crews here," Aerith said.

Cloud waggled his head. Zack took it a maybe.

"When I set up here, my place was on the edges. Now I'm kinda in the middle," Cloud said. "Thinking of moving out again. Better for Deza, and I'm not too fond of the crowds either."

The path widened and split then split again. Cloud jerked his chin to the side. "Motorcycle shop. Good reputation. Said you were interested."

Zack stopped to look at the Hardy-Daytona being worked on in the shop's entrance. It was a model that had been old before Zack could legally drive, but it was in beautiful condition. The two men working on it stopped their conversation to stare at him.

Zack waved. "Beautiful work," he said. "I'll be back later to talk." He gave the guys two thumbs up before whirling away.

Cloud led them through narrow, covered alleys and broad paths paved with more corrugated tin and rough metal slabs. Everywhere there were people, talking, shopping, making things, living their lives. The buildings weren't concrete and stone, like in upper Midgar, but wood and salvaged steel. They looked mostly solid and definitely permanent. He saw several people brushing the dirt from ratty front steps – cleaning _windows_ …

Even more than Sector 5, Zack got the sense that the inhabitants didn't think of this as a slum. It was home. It was _their_ home, and efforts had been made to make it a city and not a shanty town. Colourful murals were painted on large walls, decorative borders on small ones. Neon signs and flashing multi‑coloured lights glowed in the under-plate dimness. Children laughed and dogs barked, and it was _alive_ in ways Zack had never seen above‑the‑plate.

The first place Cloud took them was to a… well, not an indoor mall, but a covered one. It was made from huge pipes stuck in the ground. The top was easily three metres above them. It had room for dozens of shops, but instead it was pretty much deserted – only a couple merchants had goods laid out for sale. One of them had an actual table and a chair instead of a blanket. Of course, that was they guy Cloud took them to.

Niam, the salvage dealer with the recurring drake problem, looked disturbed when Aerith sighed in disappointment at the news that there were none right now. He rallied quickly though. "We got giant fucking rats nesting in the back of the building," he said to cheer her up. "They steal the food, bite the people. Nobody wants to come here with them around. 's why we're so empty."

"We can help!" Aerith said eagerly.

The guy looked at Cloud who asked, "On the Watch board?"

Niam nodded. "Yeah. Had a couple already try, but there's half a dozen of the bastards."

Cloud looked at him, but really what was Zack going to say? "Go mercenaries."

Aerith clapped her hands. "It's very exciting."

The rats _were_ huge, Zack would give the guy that, but their fiercest attack was throwing dust at in their faces.

"Concentrate on one," Zack said. "Once it's out, we move to the next." And that's what they did.

One after another, the rats went down, filling the air with the distinctive green sparks of death.

Zack sustained their only injury – a nasty bite on his arm that stung like a motherfucker. It also turned a nasty purple colour very quickly.

"Poison," Cloud said after giving it a look. He looked up at Zack. "Second time today."

"Will Healing–"

Cloud was already shaking his head. "Need Cleansing materia or an antidote." He reached into a compact pouch he had attached to his belt and pulled out a vial. It was maybe 100 millilitres of purpley-green liquid that Zack recognized.

"Have they improved the flavour?" he asked.

"Not even a little," Cloud smiled.

They did a quick search of all the nooks and crannies, making sure there wasn't any more of the rats before heading back to Niam, the salvage guy. He gave them 100 gil and a deal on a leather bracer with two materia slots. Cloud split the gil between them and gave Aerith the bracer.

"Me?" Aerith asked, stunned. She held her hands tight to her chest.

Cloud just rolled his eyes. He took one of her hands and uncurled it. Into her palm he placed 34 gil. "Earned it," he said, strapping the bracer to her right wrist. "Easiest rat fight I've had."

Zack looked at her pleased blush and felt like bursting. He had no right, but he was still proud of her, wanted to shout to passerbys that _she_ had picked _him_.

"C'mon," Cloud said. "Let's get a Cleansing materia."

Apparently, Cloud had a deal with a local item shop owner. He told everyone that's where he bought his potions and equipment, and the owner gave Cloud a discount. "No weapons, though," he added. "Shame. Best weaponsmith here is a butthole."

The road curved slowly and then opened into another wide area. It was some kind of hub and taking up one whole side was a large building, with a sign that doubled its height: 'Seventh Heaven'.

"Is that an inn?" Zack asked as they passed it.

Cloud shook his head. "Bar," he said. "We can stop there later. Item shop first. Aerith, if you smile, you'll get a better deal. Up to you, though."

At the item shop, Cloud introduced them as "partners", as if they were a team, but he also called them friends and it was a different kind of warmth in Zack's chest. Cloud had been unfailingly kind, generous, competent and _fun_.

He suddenly wondered if Kunsel was still sending him messages.

"Aerith needs materia," Cloud said, leaning on the counter. "Whaddya got?"

Aerith gave Jeckie a wide smile, "I just started using it, but I'm _really good_."

"She is," Zack said. He fingered the SIM card Cloud had taken from his old PHS. It was SOLDIER issue and over seven years old. Would it work in a commercial version?

"Also, antidotes," Cloud said. "Damn doom rats."

"You cleared them out?" the merchant said.

Cloud nodded, and between that and Aerith's smile, they got a brand-new Cleansing materia for half price, and a cheapish iron bangle that she insisted go to Zack.

"You got a PHS or two?" Zack asked. "Doesn't have to be new; just has to work."

And so they haggled a little more. Jeckie had one in stock that went to Aerith, since she had the money for it (and Zack's SIM card wouldn't fit). The merchant promised to scrounge up another one, and older one. Then it should work.

Zack smiled and shook hands on the deal, and tried not to feel like he'd just put a huge fucking beacon on top of his head.

Once out of the store, Aerith popped the new Cleansing into her new bracer and tried it out on Zack. "It feels different than the Cura." Which she also cast on Zack for comparison.

"Can add another slot to your staff at my shop," Cloud said, leading them to their next stop. Then he looked at her. "If you want."

Aerith thought about it, hand to chin. "You know what? I think I do _want_." Then she had to program Cloud's PHS ID into her PHS and send him a message – with a winky face emoji.

Cloud didn't say anything, but Zack saw his little smile flicker as he tapped out a reply.

He took them around a corner to a building with a large porch. There were notice boards on the side of it, and and well-armed men and women stood in front reading the listings. To the side of the boards, tables and chairs were set up. People with badges sat on one side taking notes as other people made complaints or reported monster infestations or whatever. Maybe they were bookies taking bets. There was too much noise for Zack to hear what was being said.

In front of everything, stood an older guy with a neat beard and cap. He leaned on the railing and was talking the same white-haired boy who'd stopped them in Sector 5 last night. Chadley or Geordie.

Turned out the guy was Wymer, head of Sector 7's Neighbourhood Watch, (and the kid was Chadley). Both of them would pay them to clear out monsters, but where the Chadley paid in unusual or cheap materia, the Watch paid in gil and goods.

Aerith, unsurprisingly, was totally onboard with either option.

She took the Assess materia Chadley needed them to use (even though they already had two) and together they went off to fight some kind of mutated fang thing that had moved into the scrapyard to the south that they were clearing for development.

"Like I said, Sector 7's still growing." Cloud sounded neither happy nor sad at being proved correct.

As they walked around the scrapyard, clearing out rats and gorgers as they looked for the mutated fang, Zack thought about what it meant that this sector was large enough to support an organization like the Watch. The group had money for the rewards, a weapon exchange program, and a training facility with places for both physical training and monster familiarity workshops. Sector 7 had a _freaking council_ and the Neighbourhood Watch had a seat on it.

This place was permanent.

Well, he'd known the settlements under the plate were _permanent_ , but Sector 5 always seemed… Well, he'd always thought (and maybe it was an upper-Midgar bias) but he'd always thought that one day all the residents would say 'fuck it' and move out, because, _c'mon!_ They didn't have power; they didn't have cars - they didn't have theatres or the latest consumer goods. It meant life under the plate had to be pretty horrible, right?

Except it wasn't. It actually seemed pretty nice.

After escaping from Nibelheim, Zack had just run – anywhere, anyplace that didn't have Shinra in it. He'd tried Wutai, but they'd all known what he was, and even a SOLDIER First could go without proper rest for so long. He'd gone home to Gongaga because he had no place else to go. That had taken him to Banora, and the final showdown with Genesis. Afterwards, he'd thought of sticking around – dumbapples were delicious and why the hells not? But Banora had felt like an ending, not a beginning.

Then Angeal's griffon had showed up with Aerith's letter and it was like a huge hook in his chest pulling him to her. He'd had no thought but that he wanted to see her again, one more time. Perhaps a final time, and he hadn't really thought beyond that. Yeah, he'd joked to himself about becoming a mercenary – something he though would be the complete opposite of Angeal's vaunted SOLDIER ideals.

When he'd seen the regiment of infantry lining the road in front of him, he'd known. He wasn't making it out alive. He'd accepted it. Sent out his last love to Aerith – still so far away – and showed Shinra what their most successful experiments could do.

And when he couldn't wield Angeal's Galatine anymore, he'd used his fists. And when he couldn't use his fists, he'd used his words.

And when he lost his words, he'd still had his dreams.

At one point, he thought he'd seen Angeal reaching out a hand to him, but instead of his mentor's dark, heavy features, there'd been a slim, blue-eyed blonde, and Zack hadn't been dead at all.

Now he had Cloud and Aerith, and life as a mercenary under the plate was maybe not without its own honour, and he could _live here_. With them.

_He could have a life._

"Just breathe, Zack," he heard, and "It's okay. We're safe," when he felt magic being cast near him.

When the spots cleared from his vision, there were three somethings dissolving into the Lifestream, close enough to him to have been a serious threat. Cloud was casting a healing spell over himself, and Aerith was chugging a potion – ether from the smell.

"Well this is embarrassing," Zack sighed, and really, really wished he could sink into the gravel.

"Only been two days since you were mostly dead," Cloud said as if that explained everything.

Aerith looked at him, eyes huge with concern and love. "Honestly, considering everything? You're doing really, really well. You're building a whole new you, right?"

Building a new him… A new Zack Fair. That sounded about right. One that wasn't Shinra's weapon. One that wore garish T-shirts, and kissed his girlfriend on a chocobo wagon. One who only had to maintain his own honour, and not anybody else's…

"Yeah," he smiled. He straightened and pulled in a breath. It was smoggy and smelly and free. "Let's go be mercenaries."

They tracked the fang down in a small cul-de-sac and finished it. Cloud harvested some stuff while Aerith watched in fascination. After that it was an easy walk back to the Beginner's Hall, where they collected their rewards. Cloud was just as particular about divvying up the gil this time, making sure they each got an equivalent share.

Cloud pointed out the Savings & Loan office sandwiched between the Neighbourhood Watch and the weapons shop. "Safest place in the sector," he joked, but Zack considered what would be necessary to get a bank account down here.

Next, Cloud, took them to the area of the sector that was predominantly Wutaian. "Need to meet the Head of the Benevolent Society, Master Kenagi," Cloud said. "It's like the Neighbourhood Watch, but only for Little Da-chao."

"Why do they have a separate one?" Aerith asked.

"Because the original leader of the Watch told the original Wutaian refugees to fuck off when they came to report monster sightings."

"Oh," Aerith said disappointed.

"Yah. Better now, but they keep their own monster board. Guy we're going to meet is the enclave's council member," Cloud went on. "If Little Da‑chao had a mayor, Kenagi would be it."

It was easy to tell when they entered the Wutai enclave. The people on the road spoke in rapid-fire Wutainese, and many wore versions of the traditional dress. The buildings still looked like under the plate, but it also didn't. Roof edges occasionally had that up-tilt that Zack had seen on the buildings in Wutai. Most shops had hung large round lanterns outside announcing their wares in Wutaian script along with signs in Common.

Everywhere around him, Zack was reminded of the war so many years ago – the war that he'd helped win for Shinra.

Zack slowed down. "Uhh…" Were the residents staring at him?

"Y'know," he said, coming to a halt. "Maybe this isn't a good idea."

Both Aerith and Cloud turned to stare at him, but it was Aerith who asked why.

Zack scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I fought in Wutai. You knew that, right?" Cloud nodded. Aerith didn't. "The only reason they lost was because of SOLDIER."

"You planning on refighting the war?" Cloud asked.

" _No!_ "

"So shouldn't be a problem." Cloud shrugged and kept walking.

Aerith giggled. She also gave him a kiss so he'd feel better. And it worked (or at least it was a distraction). People stared at them – so very out of place in this little section of the slums.

Then again, it could've been his T-shirt, and the way Aerith pulled him along by his hand… It could've been a lot of things other than his glowing eyes and huge sword.

Eventually, Cloud took them to a small building. Outside, notices in Wutaian and Common were hung to a pole. Inside, it was a Wutaian teahouse that doubled as Little Da-chao's social hub. A few of the tables had patrons sitting at them. Many of the patrons had large muscles and big swords.

Cloud led them to the back, and introduced them to an older Wutai man named Kenagi.

Kenagi looked at Zack's eyes and frowned.

"He has the glowing eyes of a Shinra SOLDIER. How is he here?" There was just the hint of an accent as he spoke in Common. Cloud said nothing, letting Zack answer for himself.

"Uhh… Shinra pronounced me dead four years ago, and tried to kill me again this week?"

"So you hate Shinra now." There was no judgement in Kenagi's voice.

Zack's knee-jerk reaction was to say yes, but that wasn't true. 'No' wasn't true either. He sighed. "Aspects of it… Certain people? Yeah. But mostly, I just want to live my life now. As long as they don't come after me – or my friends – I'll leave them be."

Nothing in the older Wutaian's expression indicated whether he thought Zacks' answer was smart or stupid, naive or cowardly. Kenagi looked at him, stared into Zack's eyes, looked at his gloved hands, didn't wince at his shirt. Zack tried not to shift, but it was hard. Angeal used to have the same ability to make Zack feel X-rayed, and it brought back so many memories he had of being a SOLDIER Second.

"Zack Fair," Kenagi said, proving he'd been recognized. "SOLDIER fought honourably in a dishonourable war."

He turned to Aerith, who dipped in a what could've been a courtesy. "Aerith Gainsborough. I grow and sell flowers when I'm not killing monsters with my friends," she said brightly.

He repeated her name carefully, stumbling a little at the 'th' sound the way Tseng always did. Kenagi gave her the same intense examination that he'd given Zack, but Aerith looked back. It was Kenagi's turn to shift uncomfortably.

"You have interesting companions, Cloud Strife," the old guy finally said. He gave Aerith one last look, but that was it apparently.

They'd passed. He and Aerith could now come by and pick up monster hunts without needing Cloud's company. In fact, they got asked to complete a small job right away.

Cloud said it was an indicator to all the local bounty hunters that they had Kenagi's approval, rather than something they actually needed help with. "Don't have weapons the way the Neighbourhood Watch does. Even so only hire out for the toughest monsters."

"Like drakes?" Aerith asked.

Cloud tipped his head. "Or worse."

Like _that_ didn't sound ominous.

It didn't take them long to complete the job (more huge fucking rats) and collect the reward. In fact, it was only late afternoon by the time they were done. Cloud suggested that they go to his place for a bit, so he could add the new materia slot to Aerith's staff.

"How long will it take?" Zack asked. "Aerith needs to get back to Sector 5 before dark," Zack said.

Cloud squinted up at the plate. "You'll miss the 1700 run, but there're two more after that."

Aerith made a face. "I don't want to go home."

"Gonna be sore tomorrow," Cloud pointed out. "Lotsa different muscles used in a fight. Materia's a strain, too."

"Plus Elmyra's going to be worried," Zack added.

Aerith stopped, grabbed him and pulled herself closer. "I want to spend more time with _you_." She stepped even closer, pressed a little harder. "You know, _alone_."

Zack's brain shorted out with wonder and hope and disbelief and love and… He just couldn't believe this was real. That he'd made it back to her. He held her face like she was precious (because she was) and kissed her the same way.

Cloud cleared his throat. "I'll use the Watch's workshop," he said. "I can be gone for an hour, maybe hour and a half. Then, me 'n Deza'll take her home."

Zack didn't take his eyes from Aerith's magnificent face. "Don't want to put you out."

"No worries," Cloud said. "I like riding Deza."

So Cloud took them to his place, a narrow two-story building built between other narrow two story buildings. Half the bottom was open on two sides, to make a pen for Deza. Who was nested down on some old blankets, head tucked under a wing while he slept. The other half was thick walls and sturdy locks – Cloud's workshop, Zack guessed.

Cloud led them up narrow stairs to the second floor. He took off Iron Blade while he pointed out the features of the small unit: full kitchen, full bathroom ("just use the Fire materia by the tank to get hot water"), his bedroom.

And the spare bedroom with the futon in the cupboard he kept for friends.

"You still got condoms?" he asked, cool as if asking them if they wanted a drink. It made Aerith giggle and Zack shuffle his feet as if he were a teenager again. "There's some in my bedside table if you run out."

"Thanks, _dad_ ," Zack said, pushing his friend out the door. "We'll be fine." He slammed the door shut and leaned on it. He swore he heard Cloud laugh as he went down the stairs.

Then it was just him and Aerith. And an hour of complete privacy.

"Shower?" he asked. They'd fought a lot of monsters today.

"Later," she said, and Zack had to swallow. She held out a hand and Zack took it. She pulled him in, and he let himself be pulled.

"Let's use the rest of your condoms," she said, and then laughed at him as he blushed. He kissed her to shut her up. And then he kissed her because she tasted wonderful. She tasted of life and happiness and a future he'd almost given up on.

It didn't take long for kissing to be not enough. She ran hands over him. Finding the sword harness blocking her access, she made an unhappy sound, so Zack scrambled for the buckles. Then remembered he should probably take off the buster sword first if he didn't want it breaking right through Cloud's floor.

Once his sword was on the ground it became a bit of a race to see who could touch the most skin, who could take off the most clothes without breaking the kiss.

As far as Zack was concerned, they both won.

When they finally made it to Cloud's guest futon, he was more than ready to repeat what they'd done last night. Hands, mouth, some judicious rubbing… It had been all either of them needed.

Aerith had other ideas though.

She pushed him down gently, then kneeled on top of him. "Condom?" she asked.

He held up the strip Cloud had given him yesterday.

Aerith took one. She opened it, and with a look of supreme concentration she started rolling it down his erection.

Zack had to close his eyes because, _Odin's balls_ , how was he expected to survive watching Aerith _do_ that?

He flung an arm over his face to hide behind and panted and tried to think of something – _anything_ – to keep his body under control.

He knew the moment she saw him; she laughed, a waterfall of joy. He reached out his other hand to her torso. Not just for her breasts (those were a bonus) but to just feel her breathing.

Then she slid down onto him.

He moved his hand away in case he unconsciously gripped too hard. Good idea, because she was slipping down _so slowwwww_ …. It was agonizing and wonderful, and his fingers dug holes in Cloud's futon.

"Oh," she said, soft and surprised. "You're so warm!"

Fuck. Answer. "Um, SOLDIER. We run hot. Ran hot." Is SOLDIER even a thing anymore?

Her giggle was more of a sigh. "It's nice. I like it."

He let her work herself on him, let both of them get used to this new level of intimacy though he knew there would always be a part of him that would never get used to having this.

When he finally thought he could control his strength, he trailed his hands over her body, feeling her skin, _her_ warmth which was a hundred times better than the artificial heat of mako.

He watched his hands touch her breasts. They were small and firm, and they filled his hands perfectly. Her nipples were hard, and everything about her felt so good, so good….

"Oooooh." She was all the way down, or he was all the way in? Didn't matter. She was making little circles with her hips.

"Fuck," he said. "Too good."

"Are you warning me, Zack?" she asked smiling. "Telling me you're not going to last?"

He nodded, but her eyes were closed. "Yeah. Yes. Yes… _Goddess_ …"

She took his right hand and pulled it down her body, down over her ribs, over her belly. All the way down until their fingers were buried in their pubic hair.

"Better take care of me then."

So he did. He rubbed and circled and pressed until she shuddered above him and around him, making small sounds of surprise and delight.

Then he shuddered under her, and in her, and he groaned in painful bliss.

"Fuuuuck," he moaned.

"Mmmmmm," she agreed, letting out a slow, contented sigh. She draped herself over him carefully. Not moving enough for his softening penis to slide out.

Zack let himself drift, smiling stupidly, content.

She smiled against his chest. "Two left."

.o0|0o.

Johnny came into the bar the way he always did: arms wide and voice loud. "Tifa! My beauty queen! My muse! I've got good news for ya!"

Tifa just rolled her eyes and mixed the drink for customers who actually had gil. "If this is about your deal with Monxie–"

He waved his hands and shushed, as if it was a secret. He rushed closer to the bar. "I'm trying to get out of that," he said.

Tifa just looked at him. "Good luck." He didn't have a chance.

"No, it's about that friend of yours, the mountain man," Johnny said and grabbed all Tifa's attention. "I saw him come out the Beginner's Hall earlier. He was carrying a staff."

"He was where?"

"Beginner's Hall. Apparently, he spent the evening adding materia slots to a woman's staff," Johnny said. "You think he finally got a girlfriend?" The question was pointed – Johnny thought the only reason Tifa said no to him all the time was because she was hung up on Cloud. It wasn't. Even though Cloud liked girls as well as, you know, _men_ , their relationship wasn't like that.

However, if he _was_ back in the sector, he was supposed to have come to see her. They'd nearly collected the money they needed to hire him for… For _the job_ , so They had things to discuss and plan.

"Biggs!" she called out. "Take over?"

Biggs gave a nod, getting up from his seat. As soon as he moved, Jessie and Wedge got up and moved to the bar. Jessie had a napkin she'd covered in rough sketches and formulas.

Yes, Tifa thought, her chest filling with anticipation. They were nearly ready for Act One


	9. Ripple Effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aerith enjoys the aftermath of both battle and sex. She doesn't enjoy the visit by Cloud's friend so much.

Aerith heard Cloud stomping up the stairs exactly 90 minutes after he'd gone down them.

She was feeling the soreness Cloud had said she'd feel tomorrow from the monster fighting. Even if she was doubly sore later, it didn't matter. Every ache would bring _wonderful_ memories.

They'd taken advantage of Cloud's shower and the large quantities of hot water they'd made. Apparently, it was an army trick, using low-level Fire materia to heat buckets of water, and Cloud had adapted it for his home. Zack had let her warm the water. He'd stood behind her, his hands on her arms holding them steady, guiding her on how to direct the energy.

Not that she actually needed the guidance, but as an excuse to keep touching, it had been _brilliant_!

By the time Zack's new friend tromped up the stairs, they were both dressed and presentable.

"Hope you heard me making noise, 'cause I'm coming in," Cloud said and opened the door. He had her silver staff on his back and bags of food in his hands.

"Oh, man, Cloud!" Zack said, springing to help him set everything down. "You didn't have to."

Cloud smirked at him. "I figured you'd need it."

He gave both of them quick looks from toes to top. Aerith got the impression that he knew they'd used all of Zack's condoms. She also got the impression that he didn't care. They could've used one or none and his reaction would've been the same.

He took her staff from his back and handed it to her. He'd added not one but two materia slots, and he'd done such a nice job that she could hardly tell they'd been added later.

"Sorry, couldn't link them." He gave a sheepish shrug. "Need a proper weaponsmith for that."

She twirled the staff. "Don't be silly. You've done a wonderful job!" He turned away before she could see him smile, but she knew that he had.

He'd brought a selection of spicy foods and rice, and a half-dozen bottles of beer.

Aerith had never had beer.

"I've never had beer."

Both men looked at her in shock. "Never?" Zack repeated.

Aerith shook her head, enjoying the feel of her long braid brushing against her back. "Too expensive. Plus, I don't think Mom likes the taste, so she never bought it." she added honestly,

Cloud looked at Zack, who just raised his eyebrows. With a little shrug, Cloud popped the cap "See if you like it."

It was… _in_ teresting….

"It tastes like bread smells."

Zack snickered. "Yup. You get used to it."

Aerith wasn't sure she wanted to.

The sound of light footsteps running up the stairs came only moments before the door slammed open. "Cloud! Know you're here!"

The woman who burst in was about Aerith's age, maybe younger. They were about the same height, and they both had long hair. Those were about the only things they had in common. The newcomer had dark, dark hair, golden eyes, and very generous breasts accented by the suspenders that she wore connected to a very short skirt… short thing.

She had _stomach muscles!_

Aerith tried not to feel inadequate.

"Heard you were back… _from Johnny_ ," she said as if Aerith and Zack weren't in the room. "Did you forget our planning session?"

Cloud, standing next to the small kitchen, frowned. "Not the time, Teef. Guests." He jerked his head at them on the couch. Aerith smiled brightly. Zack gave a little wave. "Heya."

The newcomer, Teef, tensed as she finally noticed them. She looked at Aerith, the same kind of toe to top examination Cloud had used, before shifting her gaze to Zack. There was a long moment, then her eyes narrowed. " _You!"_

It was accusation and curse, and the newcomer shifted into a battle-ready stance.

"Teef! Stop!"

But Cloud's friend wasn't listening. She moved towards Zack, fists up.

Without thought, Aerith stood and pointed her staff at Cloud's friend. "That's my boyfriend," she said. "I just got him back and I would be _very upset_ if you hurt him."

" _He's a killer_!"

"Tifa!" Cloud said firmly and loudly, and the woman turned on him.

"He was there, at Nibelheim," she said. "He did nothing to stop Sephiroth. _Nothing_!" She whirled back to glare at Zack accusingly. "He let Nibelheim _burn_."

"I'm sorry." Aerith only heard Zack because she was right beside him.

"He's a good man," Aerith said. "If he could've saved your village, he would have."

"You can't know that," the woman sneered.

Aerith drew herself up straight. "Yes, I can."

"Found him on the cliffs," Cloud said, breaking the tense silence. "Shinra tried to kill him."

The woman froze for a second. Her fists were still up, but she was hesitating.

"He killed me, too," Zack said. "Sephiroth did. If it hadn't been for Hojo…. His damn scientists." He rubbed his breastbone, and Aerith knew he was reliving the moment Sephiroth had stabbed him. He actually had a scar from it, and he didn't have many.

Aerith dug a hand into his hair, offering comfort. He leaned into her.

"You're right. I did nothing." Zack's hands came up and clutched at Aerith's dress, pulling her closer. "I'm _not_ a hero." He pressed into her. "I couldn't save _anyone!"_ Aerith turned so Zack could bury his face in her belly. She wrapped her arms around him and held him as he shook. Just like she'd done before, so many years ago.

When he finally quieted, they were alone in the room. She couldn't hear anyone on the stairs. There was only Zack's hitched breaths. She was doing her own sniffling to match his – so much pain. The years of experiments had caused physical pain, but the betrayal by his last hero had hurt Zack so much more than what Hojo had done. Hojo had hurt the body, but Sephiroth had hurt Zack's heart.

It was such a big heart.

"You're a good man, Zack," she murmured. "You tried. I'm so proud of you." She kept repeating it. She'd keep repeating it for as long as he needed to hear it.

"I'm not proud of myself," he finally whispered back.

She ruffled his hair. "Of course not," she said. "You expect a lot of yourself. Too much."

"No such thing in SOLDIER."

She lifted his face, so he had to look at her. His was red and splotchy. Hers probably looked the same. "You're more than a SOLDIER, Zack. You're a human being. And that's better than being a SOLDIER." He frowned. She gave him a small smile. "It's more work though. And it hurts more."

He looked at her, eyes unsure and confused and lost. "I just wanted to be hero."

Oh Zack, she thought. He'd put himself under a lot of pressure in his desire to be 'a hero', without ever realizing that being a hero was so much bigger than Shinra had envisioned, and simpler than he'd believed.

Now wasn't the time for that discussion though. Instead, she kissed his forehead. "You wouldn't be my Zack if you didn't."

He buried himself back into her, and she held him. She could see so much of him – _feel_ so much of him.

Cloud's place only had two small windows, so it hadn't been bright to start with. But as Aerith held Zack and rocked him, it got darker, and darker. The food on the table got cold and the beer got warm. And she held Zack and rocked him, humming a soft song Ifalna had sung to her long ago

Finally, he pulled away, wiping a rough arm across his face. "I don't know why you waited."

She lifted his chin. "Because you have the prettiest eyes. They see sunshine and life and love, even behind the darkest of clouds." She rubbed her finger softly over his eyebrow.

He gave an embarrassed cough but didn't argue.

"We should see where Cloud got to," he said after a while. It still took him a few more minutes to uncoil himself. He ducked into Cloud's bathroom, while Aerith went into the kitchen to splash cold water on her face and to wipe away any trace of tears. She tried to clean the worst of it off her dress but just ended up with an even bigger wet spot.

Giving up she put the food away in Cloud's Iced food box. Another ingenious idea she'd have to remember. (Maybe that's why Elmyra's husband had sent her the Ice materia so many years ago.) While she waited for Zack to come out, she made sure the rest of the room was tidy.

He finally emerged, eyes still red. She held out a hand – they'd go down together and face whatever was down there together. They could do that now – now that he'd come back to her.

But at the bottom of the stairs, no one was waiting to confront Zack. There were people in the lane, walking by to somewhere else, but the only person was standing around was Cloud and he was grooming his chocobo. He looked up as they came down but didn't stop what he was doing. The bird's eyes were half-closed and Aerith could hear it cooing.

"She left?" Zack asked, hand tight around hers.

Cloud nodded. "Had a talk. Explained a few things; reminded her of a few others."

"She has the right to be angry at me."

Both Aerith and Cloud frowned at him. He held up a hand to stop their protests. "I knew something was wrong with Sephiroth way before he went crazy. I mean, he holed himself up in the creepy secret basement and I just… let him."

Cloud was still frowning, but now it was for a different reason. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Zack shifted his weight, ran his free hand through his hair. "I did _try_ ," he said. "But he ordered to me go, and so I went."

"I thought you were friends," Aerith asked. Zack had always talked as if they were, but now he shook his head.

"We were friendly, yeah," he said. "Because of Angeal I'd met him back when I was a Second, and then after… After Genesis and Angeal took off, we were the last Firsts in SOLDIER. And, I mean, you know me: I get along with most people. So yeah, friendly. But not friends." He looked away.

Cloud had stopped grooming his chocobo, so now the chocobo was grooming him. "But you did stop him, yah. You killed him."

Zack stiffened, and Aerith thought strong supportive thoughts. Five years ago, before he'd been sent on that mission, Zack had idolized Sephiroth. To have been forced to kill him – another one of his heroes….

"Genesis started it," Zack finally said. "They fought at the reactor and Genesis was hurt. Still an asshole, but he warned me something was seriously wrong with Sephiroth. When I fought Sephiroth, I managed to get a couple good hits in, but he was better than me, stronger.

"And crazy," Cloud muttered. Aerith could've hugged him. "Crazy people don't set limits on themselves the same way."

Zack smiled and nodded. "There was a Turk with me. She used a shotgun and blew chunks out of him, but that still didn't stop him. You know who really saved the day? A lowly infantryman jump-tackled Sephiroth off the walkway and into the mako pool. Private Gidson, willing to die to save the world." He looked at them with a cynical smile. " _That's_ who was a hero that day."

"That kid in Sector 5 – the one who recognized you," Cloud said. "How'd you meet him?"

Zack shifted, pulling Aerith closer before answering. He told Cloud of the day they'd met. How he'd fell off the plate and through the roof of Aerith's church.

"And then I called 'Hell-loo' and he woke up," she added. For some reason Cloud's eyebrows lifted in surprise. Aerith didn't have a chance to ask about it though, because Zack continued with the tale of their first date. Of going to the Sector 5 market and being robbed. Of chasing Oates around and around and around – with _no help from Aerith_. (Here he frowned down at her, so she smiled sweetly back.)

He told Cloud about Oates' mom being sick, and how he had no money to buy her medicine because his wallet had been eaten by a boundfat.

"And you believed him?" Cloud asked in disbelief.

"Oh, it _was_ the truth," Aerith assured him. "She never really got better, but the medicines helped with the pain."

"So I went and killed the boundfats–"

"First he offered to buy the medicine, but he didn't have enough money," Aerith said. Cloud's eyebrows went back up.

"Hey!" Zack pouted. "My dignity!"

That made Cloud smile. "So, you were his hero," he said. "Guess being a decent guy is all it takes sometimes."

Zack's mouth opened and hung there, while Aerith hid giggles behind her hand. "That's what _I_ said."

Zack frowned at them. "Have you two got some kind of psychic bond happening or what?" He complained in easy tones. The tension that he'd carried since Cloud's friend spat at him was gone now, and Aerith relaxed as well.

Above them the huge lamps under the plate dimmed indicating nightfall. Aerith looked to the rim of the plate and saw the sun halfway between it and the horizon. "Oh! It's late."

Both the men looked at the west.

"Shit!" Zack said. "The delivery service!" His eyes opened in dismay.

She looked back at Cloud. "Is it still running?"

He gave a weird head shake. "Missed dinner, but there's another after midnight, to let in the late-night crowds from Wall Market.

"Oh hells. Elmyra's going to kill me." Zack scrubbed his head.

Aerith giggled. "I can always stay here with you tonight."

She wasn't disappointed when Zack turned to her with horror in his eyes. "She'd skin me first _then_ kill me."

"Said I'd take you," Cloud said. "On Deza."

Aerith looked at the large bird carefully combing Cloud's hair with its beak. She'd never ridden a chocobo before, but then there were a lot of things she'd done today that she'd never done before. This could be another one. She nodded.

While Cloud got Deza ready, Aerith turned to Zack. "Are you going to come back with us?"

Zack opened his mouth to say yes, then sighed. "There's really no place for me to stay in Sector 5. It doesn't have an inn, or anything."

"There's the second bedroom at my house?" Aerith could imagine it. She and Zack separated by just one thin wall… It would be _gloriously_ awful, and likely neither one of them would get much sleep. From Zack's smile he was imagining the same thing, but without the wall separating them.

Aerith liked Zack's imagination.

Then he shook his head. "We'd try sneaking into each other's rooms and your mother would catch us for sure. I need to keep on her good side, so she won't forbid you from seeing me."

Aerith tipped her head. "Do you think that would stop me?" Her hands were on her hips, because if _that's_ what Zack thought…

Zack smiled. "No, I don't, but I don't want you to fight with your mom over me, so I will find someplace around here to stay tonight. I'll come to you in the morning."

Then he groaned, " _Gods_ , that sounds so sensible and _old_ …"

"It did a little," Aerith agreed with a smile. "But is that really a bad thing?"

"I never had to be sensible before," he explained. "I had superior officers, a mentor."

"And what? They did your thinking for you?"

"Kinda, yeah." Zack agreed ruefully. "I'd just show up and swing my sword, and everything was simple."

Cloud, walking up to them with Deza's reins in his hand, snorted. "Only seemed simple because they were lying to you."

"That doesn't make me feel better," Zack said in mock outrage.

Cloud shrugged unrepentant. "Ready to go?" he asked her.

Yes, but not really. She didn't want to leave Zack. She turned back, clutching him. She was suddenly afraid that if she let him out of her sight, he would be taken from her again.

He seemed to be afraid of the same thing if his murmured assurances were anything to go by. He kissed her, cupping her cheeks in his hands like she was precious. "Tomorrow," he promised. "First thing."

Deza was crouched on the ground. "Step over him here," Cloud indicated. "But don't sit. Easy."

Except Aerith's skirt wasn't very wide. Determined not to balk at the first hurdle, she hiked her skirt up and stepped over Deza's back.

Chocobo's were very _wide_ …

Muscles, already aching from being used in new ways, screamed in protest. Aerith grit her teeth and ignored them.

Cloud stepped in front of her, nudging her backwards until she felt unbalanced, and her skirt was dangerously close to her hips. "Crouch a little," he said. He whistled as she bent and Deza rose to meet them.

Chocobo's were also _very tall_!

"Oh my," she whispered.

Zack was there, ungloved hand warm on her bare calf. "You'll be fine. It's not as scary as it seems," he said. "And I'll see you tomorrow, first thing."

She didn't dare lean over to kiss him – she'd fall off for sure – but she laid a fond hand on his cheek. "I'll be alright. Cloud will take care of me." Cloud made a sound of agreement.

They walked to the edge of the sector, along paths that got narrower and rougher. By the time they reached the mountains of refuse that marked the outer limit of Sector 7, she'd gotten used to the rhythm of Deza's stride. Her thighs weren't protesting quite so loudly. She'd be okay.

Cloud said, "Hold on," and then Deza bounced up the hillside.

It was terrifying and excruciating and _terrifying_. Aerith wrapped her arms around Cloud's waist and held on _so hard_. She shut her eyes, but that somehow made the motion worse. At least with them open, she knew that Deza wasn't just leaping into open air.

They reached the top. The bottom of the plate seemed almost close enough to touch, but she knew that it wasn't.

Cloud held out a green materia. "Go ahead; cast Cura if you want. No need to suffer."

Aerith's cheeks grew hot, and she was thankful for the dim evening light. Cloud knew she was sore, and he knew why, too. Well, of course he did. That's why he'd made such a racket coming up the stairs, but this – casually saying he knew she had to be sore? It seemed far more intimate than the teasing he'd done back at his apartment.

He wiggled the materia. "Want me to do it?"

"No, thank you." She hadn't used healing materia earlier because she'd liked the ache in her body. It was proof that Zack was alive, proof of what they'd done, secret reminders that she could enjoy.

They could make more tomorrow, she decided and cast Cure.

"Thank you," she said politely as she handed the materia back.

"Be about fifty, sixty minutes at top speed," he said, pushing the orb back into his bracer. "Or can be sensibly slow and take ninety."

Aerith thought about it. Cloud was solid in front of her. Deza was solid underneath her. She'd hunted monsters today and made love to her boyfriend. Why not end it with a crazy nighttime run across the wastes?

"Fast as possible, please."

Cloud looked over his shoulder, grinning. "Hold on."

They made it in forty-five.

.o0|0o.

Heidegger didn't bother coming to attention. The president wasn't looking at him anyway. "The Turks have found a group that might be suitable," he reported.

"Where?"

"Sector 7 slums."

"Sector 7…" The president puffed his cigar. "Isn't that the most populated one?"

Heidegger nodded. "Many Shinra employees live there." He didn't expect it to matter.

"How long until they're agitated enough to act?"

"According to the report, the leader is a fanatic with anger issues. They're looking into his background now. Interesting thing," Heidegger said with a laugh. "They're calling themselves 'Avalanche' even though they have no affiliation with Fuhito's group."

"That we know of," the president suggested.

"Of course," Heidegger agreed. "We can play that up. Say they're backed by Wutai."

The president blew out a curl of smoke. Heidegger sneered mentally: the old man probably thought it made him look like a dragon.

"One month," the president finally said.

"You said two or three last–"

"I want this done," Shinra snapped. "Tseng has one month to bring this new Avalanche to the mark. Or you can blow up the reactor yourself, and I'll blame it on those traitorous bastards he's protecting."

This time President Shinra turned to look at him, so Heidegger gave a shallow bow. "I'll let him know your orders."

As Heidegger left the president's office, he couldn't stop the small sneer. The old man was crazy if he thought there was a Promised Land they could get to, but the president's fancy would stir up unrest, unrest could lead to insurgency and rebellion. Rebellion meant war. War made the security forces a priority over every other department except perhaps Scarlet's. That was fine. He and Scarlet understood one another.

He could finally order that pissant Hojo to create more SOLDIER Firsts. Firsts were arrogant, but they were still the best killing machines Shinra had ever produced, and they'd be under his control.

Yes, Heidegger thought. If he managed this properly, then war would be inevitable.

And if those insurgents managed a lucky kill shot on the president of Shinra… Well, those were the tragedies of war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted Aerith to have this moment to focus on the joy she has because Zack is alive, and she's experiencing a lot of first. It is, unfortunately, a little short, but have no fear. She'll be back later. =]


	10. Good Neighbouring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Left alone in Sector 7, Zack decides to explore his new home town. He gets his first solo mercenary job, and meets some unfriendly people at a bar. That's not the only unsettling encounter though, but at least he can understand that one.

Zack watched them go.

There were lamps here and there, and lights from windows. Plus whatever Hojo had done to him in Nibelheim had improved his night-vision considerably from even SOLDIER First standards. He watched through the deep gloom until Cloud and Aerith rounded a bend and were out of sight.

It was only then that he realized he was trusting Aerith's safety to a guy he'd only known for a couple days.

Life was fucking strange.

He stood there, trying to see movement on the mountains at the edge of the sector. Were those movements Cloud and Aerith on a green chocobo, or were they things that would hunt Cloud and Aerith and that chocobo, and that Zack should protect them from?

Was he imagining things?

He was definitely imaging things.

Worst case scenario-type things, but who could blame him? These past five years had been nothing but worst-case scenario on top of even worser-case scenario.

But he did trust Cloud. And Aerith hadn't been a slouch in the battle department.

Zack smiled. His girlfriend was kick-ass. How cool was that?

Still, he knew he wouldn't settle until Cloud returned and reported her safe at home, so rather than go back into Cloud's small apartment, he checked the gil in his pocket (considerably more than this morning) and headed into Sector 7. If he was going to be living here, he should probably know his way around.

It was crowded and noisy. Lots of people in the streets (more like alleys), talking, playing, _dancing_ …. Some guy tried to give him a music disc, but Zack just shook his head.

He got himself a beer from an open air bar and stopped to savour it. It probably wasn't as nice as the ones Cloud had brought home with him earlier, but it was Zack's first brew since he'd nearly been killed so it tasted wonderful.

He browsed the weapon shop, smiling widely at the irritable grump behind the counter. He found an armourer. And he found Little Gongaga.

Found it…. And stopped.

There might be people Zack had known on that street. Family, even. But it had been longer than five years since he'd visited anyone but his parents. If he went down that street, would people recognize him? Would they call out as friend, or would they jeer because he'd failed?

Would they run away in fright, assuming he was a zombie?

Zack went back to the central area, the one with that big bar on the square. The beer had tasted good. How would a decent whiskey taste?

Before he got there, some kid stopped him by tugging on his shirt. She was a cute kid, with a worried expression.

"You're part of the Watch, right?"

Zack's mind blanked, because no, but kinda? She didn't wait for an answer though, so Zack heard all about her lost friends, and how worried she was, and would he go find them before they got into trouble? "They like to go where there's food, and nice people who give them treats when they ask."

Turned out they were cats.

Zack nearly laughed, but then he thought, why not? What else did he have to do, and it was probably smarter than spending his limited money on whiskey that wouldn't even get him drunk.

So he dutifully trooped around using the kid's unhelpful tips. "Where people gather and will give them treats" could be anywhere under the plate. Except maybe Sector 2. (He'd done a lot of missions to that sector because it was the testing area for Weapons Development. There wasn't a whole lot of if fit for human residence.)

Zack circled around, to the gate where Chocobo Sam's Delivery Service had dropped them off. There were two new guards on the gate and they watched him warily, but no more warily than they watched everyone else. Most of the stores were still open and there were people browsing or standing around, but no cat.

He decided to follow the crowd heading back into the sector. At a T-junction in the middle of nothing, Zack saw a snow-white cat gleaming under a lamp. It had a collar, so that probably meant it was at least kind of tame.

This would be fun, he thought as he approached.

It was well-known, (and during Genesis's time at least, well mourned) that cats and SOLDIERs didn't mix. The sweetest, most easygoing cat in all Midgar was just as like to hiss, bite, and scratch any SOLDIER that tried to pet them and the laziest, fattest cat would run away like a guard fang was chasing them.

Add to that, Zack wasn't a cat person.

He inched closer, making the silly noises people always made when trying to tempt a feline to do anything. He held out his hand, fingers loose and open, ready to pull back as soon as the cat turned feral.

It sniffed and rubbed its cheek along his fingers, before running off.

Zack stayed crouched. All he could think was 'huh'. Maybe he smelled different?

He raised his hand and gave himself a sniff. It smelled like him, like he'd smelled since getting out of Nibelheim, but it also smelled like Aerith and the flowers that surrounded her.

He smiled with a happiness he knew was dopey.

He kept the smile as he wandered in the direction the cat had fled. He wasn't lost yet, and the evening was nice, and he'd found his way back. Life was good.

The motorcycle shop was closed, so Zack made a mental note to come back sometime later. Although, it would have to be some motorbike to get up the man-made mountains of dirt and trash that Shinra used to divide under the plate from the wastes the way Cloud's Deza could.

Taking a longer route was better than riding a chocobo.

Without warning the street widened into a large open area. He'd arrived back at the square with the bar. "Seventh Heaven." The sign for it, easily the tallest thing in the sector, was probably as close as anyone born down here got to the heavens.

Since it was likely to feature in his new future, because everyone needed a local, Zack decided to go check it out. As he got closer, he noticed it was remarkably quiet for such a big place. There was no music. If there were people inside, they weren't yelling, or singing, or fighting. It didn't look particularly busy. There were only two people on the porch.

He'd essentially changed his mind when he spotted that white cat sitting on the porch, waiting for someone to give it treats.

That kid's hints were helpful after all.

Zack climbed the stairs in a crouch, smooth and easy. Hand out, fingers loose. Ignoring his small audience, he made those stupid kissy noises. The cat looked at him, watched him approach, but otherwise ignored him.

He was _that_ close to grabbing the thing when the doors to the bar opened and some red-haired guy went flying out. 'You don't go treatin' my people like that, ya hear?" boomed a large black man from the doorway.

The cat, of course, took off.

"What you doin'? Sneakin' around my place!" Heavy footsteps heralded the large man's approach.

"Trying to get Betty's cats back to her." Zack stood with a sigh. "Cats, however, can't discern friendly intentions."

Even standing Zack had to look up to the guy. He was half a head taller, and probably twice as wide as the former SOLDIER, and every bit of it was muscle. The bar guy wore sunglasses (even though it was dark) and Zack wondered if he was blind in that eye. There were enough scars around the socket to support that theory.

He held out his hand. "Zack Fair. Just arrived in Sector 7 and looking to help out."

The black guy lifted his right hand and displayed a huge metal attachment where his hand should've been.

Zack raised his own hand, feeling like an idiot. "Oh man. Sorry. Didn't notice." He scrubbed through his hair. "Still, I'm looking for a good bar to hang out in. Since I'm going to be here a while."

The guy pointed his weapon arm at Zack. "I see those eyes. Them are SOLDIER eyes."

"Uh, yeah. Mako power." Zack twirled a finger. "Yay?"

"If you're a SOLDIER, then you're Shinra dog, and I ain't gonna have no Shinra shit dog lapping around _my place!_ " He stepped forward, leaning close, frowning aggressively. Zack wondered if he'd found a bar fight after all.

He didn't actually want to fight.

Zack held his hands up. "Hey man, I was just looking for a cat."

"Barrett? What's taking you so long?" It was Cloud's friend, Tifa. She froze as soon as she saw Zack. "Oh. It's you."

"Heya." Zack waved.

She crossed her arms. "What're you doing here?" She wasn't any more friendly that the black guy, but at least her appearance had stopping anyone from throwing a punch.

Zack took a half step back, but kept his hands up. "Just a little misunderstanding, I guess," he said. "I got hired to find some cats."

"You know this guy, Tifa?" The guy didn't take his eyes off Zack.

"Cloud vouches for him."

" _Cloud_ ," the guy sneered.

Tifa went on. "Says he's no longer with Shinra. Just a merc like him."

"Hence the cat job," Zack stuck in. He tried smiling. Both of them frowned harder. "Look, I haven't caught a single cat yet, and since this is my first solo job in the sector, that kind of failure's going to really impact my approval rating. So, if it's all the same to you, I'm just gonna mosey…"

"Are you looking for Betty's cats?" Tifa asked suddenly.

"Ah, yeah. That was the kid's name."

"You're _really_ looking for her cats," she repeated.

Zack refrained from rolling his eyes. He shrugged. "It's a job."

She looked at him silently for a long moment. The guy beside her twitched a little but didn't say anything.

"Try the training ground over there." She jerked her chin to her right. "You enter through a half-buried old culvert, so it's easy to miss."

"Uh, thanks," Zack responded, surprised. He backed down a stair and tossed them a sloppy salute. "Have a good night."

He jumped down the rest of the stairs in one go, well aware that he'd be in range of Barret's gun until he left the square. He kept his ears out for the sound of a round being chambered. His shoulder blades itched, but he forced his walk to be loose and easy by thinking about nothing. He was just a guy, looking for cats, in a town he didn't know, filled with hostile people who might kind of want to kill him…

As soon as he rounded a bend and knew that guy, Barret, couldn't see him, Zack let out a breath. Shiva's tits, that had felt close. Zack made a mental note to avoid that bar in the future and went looking for a cat.

He eventually found the training ground entrance - mostly because he asked a couple women who were just standing around. He'd walked right past it even though it was exactly how Cloud's friend had described it – a half-buried culvert pipe. He had to bend nearly in half to even get into the place, and Galatine's hilt hit the top on nearly every step making the whole thing 'bong' like a Wutaian temple gong. Finally on the other side, he was rewarded by the gleam of snow-white fur.

"One more try," he muttered.

He kept low and slow, with open hand and weird noises, and he got close enough to grab it. It hissed. He ignored it, giving it a little scratch behind the ears.

Instead of crawling though the culvert again (which had been uncomfortable the first time and would likely be painful with a cat in the mix) Zack jumped up onto the roof of one of the lower buildings surrounding the yard and then down onto the road. A passing couple gave little half-screams.

Blushing, Zack begged pardon and made his way out of there.

It took him some time to reorient himself (long enough for the cat to have settled down enough to remove its claws from his shoulder) but eventually he found the playground with the kids.

Betty was there, with an older man standing at her shoulder. There was a resemblance, so Zack figured this was her father – or a much older brother.

He'd prepared himself to admit defeat – he'd only caught one cat out of the three she'd asked for – but when he saw the yard fully, the girl had two identical white cats at her feet.

That explained… not much actually. "Uh, here." He held out the last one.

"Thank you!" the girl said, gathering up the final cat. "I was worried that you wouldn't find them all, since you're new here."

"No, no." Zack said airily. "Your tips were good."

To his embarrassment, the girl insisted on paying him. He got a peppermint bull's eye (yum), and a Maiden's Kiss potion. "In case you're turned into a frog."

The kid looked confused when Zack burst out laughing. He'd probably spent half his childhood as a toad. All the kids in Gongaga had.

He held up the potion and grinned. "Thanks, kid."

The man (father, Zack decided) thanked him as well and then ushered the girl out of the play area. It could be a school, he decided, taking one last look before heading out himself. For some reason, he'd never associated school with Lower Midgar, but Reno was from somewhere down here, and the Turks wouldn't have taken him if he didn't have basic literacy.

Did they pay taxes down here?

Probably to Shinra at least, he thought. Shinra made everyone pay taxes even if they did fuck all to help them. But Zack wondered if there were sector taxes to pay for things like schools, and sanitation. Like, how did the Neighbourhood Watch get the reward money?

He'd asked Cloud a lot of questions when they'd been traversing the wastes. Felt like he had a whole lot more.

He wandered back to Cloud's apartment. There was still dinner and that beer. If he could find Cloud's kit, he could start fixing some of the dings in his sword. Polishing her up right, rather than the rough maintenance he'd done on his flight from Nibelheim. Indulging in the soothing rhythms and smells of sword care sounded really nice.

From a narrow side lane, a tall figure in a dark cloak jumped at him.

Well, jumped was an exaggeration, but the person, guy – whatever – was suddenly in Zack's peripheral and Zack's instincts had him thinking 'threat' before he'd even processed the movement.

Galatine was out instantly, held defensively in front of him, threatening just because of its size. The person in the cloak didn't seem to notice. He groaned, and moaned, and sounded like every muscle in his body ached.

Zach had made sounds exactly like that after some of Hojo's injections, and if the cloaked guy felt even a _tenth_ as bad as Zack had at the time, then he wasn't going to be attacking anyone anytime soon. Zack swung the buster back onto the harness.

"Hey, man. You okay?" Stupid question. The guy staggered towards Zack, moving as if blind. "You got a place to stay?"

In response, the guy fell over. Just, bam! Like someone had pulled out his spine. His breath rattled. It was another sound Zack was familiar with.

Instinctively Zack tried to cast Cure, but he didn't have any Heal materia equipped.

Well, someone around here had to have healing materia.

Zack bent down and prepared to lift the guy and carry him to a busier area, where he could get help. A thin hand shot out and caught his wrist. Zack's brain shorted out.

White, grey. Mist.

An empty plain.

The Midgar wastes. Body after body staggering through. Muttering… wanting….

 _Reunion_ …

Zack ripped himself away from the grasping hand. He knew mind-fuckery when it was happening. VR was another thing Hojo's evil minions had loved to play with.

"What did you do to him?" a voice asked from up the lane. A chubby guy in a baggy, white T-shirt stood at junction ahead. Far enough away to be out of reach.

"Me? Nothing," Zack said. "He just came out of the alley and fell."

"Why'd he reach for you like that then?"

"Because he's fucking dying?" Zack answered. "D'you have a healing potion or healing materia?" It was too late. Zack heard the guy's heart stop beating, heard his lungs stop rattling. "Shit," he muttered. "You got a Phoenix Down?"

White shirt guy snorted. "Do I look like I gotta Phoenix Down? You gonna check him for ID? You know, before his body dissolves?"

Zack didn't want to touch the robed figure. Sure, the guy was dead, but what if touching him brought back that hallucination?

"Can you go get someone from the Neighbourhood Watch?" he asked finally.

White shirt guy shrugged, "I suppose," He took off in a rolling walk that was at least in the right direction. Zack settled down to wait

It took a while for Wymer to show. Zack figured it had been a good thirty minutes, and the robed body was just starting to twirl away into green sparks. Wymer crouched next and pulled at the robe, looking for something. Whatever it was, he hadn't found it by the time the body had dissolved.

"Didn't say anything?" he asked Zack. Zack shook his head.

Wymer rubbed his chin. "There's been a few of these robed figures around the sector," he said. "That's the second one I know of that's just collapsed. Did you notice a tattoo?"

Again, Zack shook his head.

"Are they part of a cult?" asked White shirt. He was excited at being so close to a mystery. Zack would've loved to trade him places.

"We don't know what they are," Wymer answered White shirt. "They showed up maybe a week ago? They don't speak. They don't bother anybody. They just wander around moaning."

"Maybe they're from the underground lab," White shirt suggested gleefully.

Wymer sighed. "That's just a stupid rumour."

Zack didn't want to hear it. He'd done his duty. His head hurt from whatever the robed guy had touched him with, and he was two sectors away from his girlfriend. He made sure Wymer didn't need him anymore and said good night.

If this had been before, he would've texted Kunsel to get all the latest conspiracy theories. As it was, Zack slowly climbed Cloud's stairs, and decided that he'd find a way to replace the beer. Maybe if he drank it fast enough, Zack could get a buzz on and forget about weird moaning guys who put words in his brain in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sephiroth's.

He unlocked the door to Cloud's apartment and stepped through. He didn't notice as a single black feather floated in the air behind him

o0|0o.

Several days later, Tseng's PHS buzzed in his pocket. One-two. One. Then one more. He looked around at the executives arguing about who needed the most money for their pet projects. They weren't paying attention to him.

He gave Rude a nod, and the martial artist slid into the security position as Tseng slipped out of the room.

When he had ensured his privacy, Tseng took out his personal phone. This one was undetectable and untappable. There were no numbers stored in it, and it didn't record any information about calls in or out. President Shinra would likely shoot him if he ever found out about it. Or give him to Hojo.

He entered the number he wanted from memory. "Tseng here."

" _I have that information you wanted._ "

"I'm listening."

" _Nine people escaped Hojo's collection after the Nibelheim Incident. One's in Midgar. One's in Da-chao in Wutai. I didn't go near either of those._ "

"We'll take care of those."

" _When asked about the Strifes in general, the response was mostly 'oh, them' or 'who?', so they were outsiders in their own village._ "

That tallied with the information in Strife's records.

" _When asked about the parents, only the mother, Claudia Strife, was mentioned._ "

No father. That also matched. "Continue."

" _Descriptors were 'who?' 'crazy', 'witch', 'immoral' and 'unfortunate'. When pressed, a couple of the older survivors indicated that Cloud Strife's conception might not have been consensual, and that's the mother's mind had 'turned' because of it._ "

That was new. Both the rape and the mother's mental instability.

"What else."

" _Same thing with Cloud Strife: 'weird', 'loner', 'poor kid', 'who?', and one who was sure he died years before the fire._ "

"Did nobody play with him? Didn't he go to school?"

Tseng could hear the shrug from the other end of the line. " _School was four mornings a week until they could read, write and do math, then they were expected to work in the family business. One of the things that made him weird was that he was quote: 'scarily good with numbers'_."

"What does that mean?"

" _That he was even more of a target for bullies and he spent most of his time in the mountains._ _"_

 _Bullying_ _had_ been in the original reports. It had been a factor in refusing Strife's SOLDIER application. Too many psychological issues could occur in someone who'd been bullied as a child. With SOLDIER strength and abilities, any loss of control or outbursts of rage could've resulted in a massacre.

Although, considering how Strife had reacted to his "accidental" exposure to mako, he would've failed the medical requirements anyway.

Tseng had read those files as well. Strife hadn't died or mutated as had most of his cohort, but he'd developed brittle bones and suffered blackouts that had made him unsuited to life in Shinra's army at any level. When he'd requested medical discharge, it had been approved the same day.

And yet…

Conversations in lower Midgar spoke of Strife as an accomplished fighter and mercenary; an odd-jobs man unafraid of any task or destination. A loner, with no strong ties to any one person or group.

This was the person who was now close to the Ancient.

" _I said, did you want me to keep digging?_ "

"No," Tseng answered. "If the situation escalates, you need to be far away from it."

There was silence from the other end. " _I'm sorry for leaving you in this position,_ " Veld said.

"We all made our choices. You have nothing to apologize for."

Tseng closed his PHS ending the call. Mentally, he reviewed everything he knew about Cloud Strife.

It didn't look like he would be a _direct_ threat to Aeris, but it was because of him that she was deviating from her established routine. It was no longer: home to church to upper Midgar and then back home. She was wandering all over the Sectors 5, 6 and 7, and she was _fighting monsters_.

He ignored Reno's opinion that she was "pretty good at it, yo." That wasn't the point. Aeris was putting herself at risk.

If she was hurt on one of their pointless monster hunts, and either Professor Hojo or President Shinra found out Tseng had known but hadn't stopped her, then that risked the lives of _all_ the Turks. Not just the ones out in the open in Midgar, but the others, the ones who'd buried themselves after Fuhito's defeat.

Hiding from President Shinra's vindictive kill order because they'd chosen to save Veld and his daughter Elfé. That saving Veld had required them to fight the Zirconiade summons which saved the planet, impressed President Shinra not at all. Only four of them had returned to Midgar, offering themselves as sacrifices to Roman Shinra's anger.

If Rufus hadn't intervened…

But he had, and President Shinra had stayed – not rescinded – the kill order on all of them. As long as they proved their _unquestioning_ loyalty to the company, everyone else was safe.

Finding out Tseng was allowing the person who might give him access to "the Promised Land" to risk herself, might be enough for the president to reactivate the order.

If President Shinra _did_ make that order, then Tseng would have no choice but to carry out his threat to kill Rufus. It was an old threat, left over from the boy's attempt to assassinate his father in Rocket Town.

But Tseng didn't want to kill Rufus Shinra. They'd been mutual hostages long enough to have come to agreement on many things, and they did owe Rufus for their current stalemate.

A more radical option was to assassinate Roman Shinra, install Rufus in his stead, and hope their delicate _pas de deux_ would continue unabated.

It was unlikely.

Once Rufus was publicly installed as the new president, he was just as likely to turn on them. If Tseng had a Turk kill the current president, then Rufus would be able to use his father's death as a way to gain sympathy for his position, and as an excuse to eliminate all the Turks current members – whether in Midgar or in hiding.

No. Tseng decided. A Turk couldn't kill the president. Instead, he needed a plausible scapegoat, someone who could be blamed for Roman Shinra's death.

It really was too bad Avalanche had failed in their many attempts. However, the president _had_ been protected by the Turks, so failure was to be expected.

Perhaps, Tseng thought, they could encourage this new Avalanche to take out President Shinra along with a mako reactor? If he could get their leader to commit to a date, then he could arrange to have the president in the danger zone at the proper time.

Reno and Rude were impressively hard to kill, so they would be security. They would fight valiantly, but but unable to save the president from the explosion, the terrorists, or a collapsing walkway.

Sector 1 reactor was the oldest in Midgar, and in the worst repair. Blueprints for it should be easy to obtain. He would hand them over to Wallace sometime this week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought of calling this chapter 'Portents and Whispers' because the Remake isn't the only one who can be unsubtle. heh


	11. It's a Good Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aerith isn't available to hunt drakes, so Cloud invites Tifa. It doesn't go as badly as it could have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you get into the chapter, I just want to say I am not anti-Tifa. Tifa is one of the most effective characters in the game and her quiet confidence as a fighter fills me with joy. Do I have problems with how her non-combat character was written in the OG? Why yes. Yes, I do. See the end notes for more details.

Nearly three weeks after Zack entered his life, someone banged on their door. It forced Cloud awake instantly, sounding far too similar to his old sergeant's habit of whacking their bed frames with her riot stick during an alarm.

He dragged on the first thing he tripped over and went to the entrance. A quick look through the spy hole assured him it wasn't someone he didn't want to talk to. He opened the door and nodded his visitor in.

"Heya, Cloud."

"Mott." Mott was one of the kids, young teenagers, who hung around the Beginner's Hall hoping to get lessons or hear stories of fighting monsters. They were used as runners and callers and cleaner uppers. It kept them occupied and mostly out of trouble.

"You wanted to know when a drake moved into the old factory?"

Cloud's interest sharpened. It had been nearly a week since he'd told the weaponsmith in Sector 5 that he'd provide his own drake skin. "And?"

"Two, we figure. And one's maybe a Cerulean."

"Rewards?"

Mott tipped their head. "Well, it's Liam, so."

So it could be anything from gil to potions or accessories depending on what the scrap dealer had on hand, but they _would be_ paid even beyond what they could salvage.

Cloud tossed Mott a coin for the information and went to Zack's room. He knocked but didn't wait for an invitation. There wouldn't be one.

Maybe it was a SOLDIER thing, Cloud thought as he looked at the oblivious lump sprawled face down on the futon. From what Zack said, SOLDIERs didn't go through the same kind of training that regular forces did. Regular army was always forced out of bed early – for drills, for patrol, for more drills. Do that for long enough and it was hard to shake the habit.

Zack didn't get up early, but he had other sleeping habits endemic to those who'd served.

Cloud grabbed a pair of folded socks from a bowl on the dresser beside the door and chucked it at Zack's head. As soon as they hit, Zack popped up ready to fight. It was why the socks were there.

"What? Who? Fuuuuck." Zack flopped back down on the bed, eyes already closing. "G'way."

Cloud threw another pair. He didn't hold back either. The cloth bundle hit with a definite thwap! "We're hunting drakes this morning."

"Nnnnn." Zack had his face planted in his pillow, but Cloud bet that was a no.

"C'mon, Zack. Don't make me poke you." Zack whined but rolled into a sitting position. He still looked mostly asleep, but Cloud had learned that once upright, Zack wouldn't lay back down.

He went into his kitchen to start the coffee. It was another trick he'd learned in the past three weeks. The sound of coffee brewing would pull Zack out of his room, in the fear that Cloud was making "caffeine tar" and not what Zack considered actual coffee.

Letting the water burble, Cloud went back into his room to get dressed.

Heavy gear today. Even with a SOLDIER along, fighting drakes would be dangerous. He pulled on thick denim pants that were similar to what he'd worn in the infantry, a zip-up leather vest that he'd original bought to go clubbing before realizing that it worked better as armor. He even attached home-made pauldrons that he'd put thick bolts through.

When he went back into the main room, Zack was in the kitchen. He was in nothing but boxers – the horrible pair that Cloud had got him in Wall Market and that Zack loved. He'd taken the coffee off the stove and was making eggs for breakfast, and Cloud resisted the urge to watch muscles flex and shift.

"Gonna call Aerith?" he asked hopefully. Her materia skills were extraordinary, and they could use that today considering drakes could fly. Her sense of humour was pretty great, too.

Cloud had insisted that both Aerith and Zack get a PHS. Reconditioned ones were pretty cheap down here, and if they were going to hunt together, it was a necessity since they couldn't just walk up the road and knock on her door.

That she and Zack mostly used it to flirt and set up booty calls was nobody's business but theirs.

Unfortunately, Zack sighed, drooping. "It's flower day."

"What's flower day?"

Zack drooped even lower. "She said she needed at least one day to look after all her gardens. I'm not allowed to join her. She says I'm a distraction."

Cloud lip lifted. "Yah. Always touching her."

Zack straightened. "Of course, I touch her! She's wonderful."

"Then start kissing her," Cloud went on.

"I like kissing her."

"Kissing leads to _serious_ making out," Cloud stared at Zack.

Zack shuffled and rubbed his head. "Ahhh, you noticed that, huh?" Cloud added a frown to his stare, and Zack broke. "Sorry! Sorry!" he said. "But not really? Because, I mean, it's _Aerith!_ Who wouldn't want to kiss her and … you know," he ended with a hopeful and helpless shrug.

Cloud let his expression relax. "Not arguing with a man in love," he said, but he wouldn't have argued anyway. Aerith _was_ special. The world seemed brighter somehow, when she was around.

Was she worth returning to Midgar, fighting a battalion, and facing down the Turks that always trailed after her? Cloud wouldn't have said that. He couldn't think of anyone he would've faced down the Turks for.

"Maybe finish early enough to go over later," he offered.

Zack perked up. "You think that's possible?"

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Considering how early it is?"

"Don't remind me." Zack drooped down again. Cloud ignored him. Zack was always like that – big emotions, big gestures. He had no problem letting everyone know what he was feeling at any given moment.

It was an attitude totally foreign to Cloud, and he'd sometimes just watch, bewildered, as the guy laughed at a street puppet's lame routine. It was kinda nice though. There weren't many people in Cloud's life who knew how to laugh like that.

While Zack was getting dressed, Cloud called Tifa and arranged for her to meet them at the gates to the old Talagger factory. She was another ground-based fighter, so they'd still lack air power, but she was a tough and quick. She'd be good against the hordes of smaller creatures that'd probably be nesting there.

He didn't mention this to Zack until they were nearly at the gate and Tifa was already there, bouncing on her toes as a kind of warm up. She wore thick denim pants and a long-sleeved T‑shirt under her own thick vest.

"Uhhh." Zack hesitated. He shifted the cool box to his other shoulder so he could see Cloud more clearly.

"Told you about Tifa, yah?" Cloud asked.

"Yeah," Zack answered. "Childhood friend. Parents killed. Vow of vengeance."

"She's a good fighter, Wutai style. Needs to work on her aerial moves."

Zack's eyebrows went up. "You expect me to help her?"

Cloud shrugged. He didn't expect it. Except Zack _would_ do it, because Zack loved fighting and he was a born trainer. "Only if she asks."

Zack snorted. "She's not gonna ask."

"Might," Cloud said. "Told her a bit about you. You and your tragic backstory." It had worked pretty good, too. Idealistic young man, only wanting to help, betrayed by his friends and leaders….

It had at least made Tifa remember that Zack _had_ helped villagers escape the fire, and he had fought Sephiroth. It wasn't much, but Tifa was Cloud's oldest friend so they'd be bumping into each other eventually. Might as well be on a hunt where there'd be combat to keep the tension down.

She finally saw him, and her smile was bright. It dimmed when she saw Zack beside him, but she kept it in place.

"Tifa, you good?" he asked. She nodded, eyes on Zack. "Told you about Zack," he continued. "He'll probably do the most damage to the drakes, but expect there'll be plenty of gorgers and other stuff. Been a while since it was last cleaned out."

They discussed materia, and Zack asked about her combat abilities. Cloud could see Tifa wanting to bristle, but Zack wasn't condescending or critical. It was more like he was fitting her skills into his planning, so when he asked how hard she could punch or how fast she could move between targets, that's exactly what he wanted to know.

Narjin, one of the least senior members of the Watch, unlocked the gate. He'd keep the exit clear for them in case they had to retreat extra-fast. Other than that, they were on their own.

Cloud had them stop before the first building so he could Barrier them, and then he took the lead since he knew the layout. Tifa followed him, and Zack watched the back. There were a couple boundfats, hedgehog pies smaller cousins, in the first building. No problem.

In the next there was a swarm of gorgers. These would be more difficult to kill, and there were a lot of them. Cloud saw at least three up in the rafters, and another two in the open area, but he could hear at least a couple more under the raised platform. He put down the cool box, took a breath, and entered.

He and Tifa immediately took on the closest one. He swung at it, drawing its attention, and Tifa hit it from the back. She hit hard enough that Cloud swore its brain popped out of its mouth.

Behind them, Zack gave a joyous shout and jumped – as a SOLDIER, he didn't have to limit his targets to the ground. One of the creatures fell and landed on its back. Cloud pounced on that one, bringing Iron Blade down in his signature move. It was the first one he'd learned, back when he still had dreams of joining SOLDIER, and it cut the creature in two.

Another one fell from above already dead and Zack landed with a whoop!

He didn't see where the next one came from. One moment, Cloud was looking for a new target, and the next there was a gorger on his back, digging its needle-sharp teeth into him, looking for his nape.

"Woah, Cloud!"

He looked at Zack, reaching for him and spun away. Pulling it straight off would do a lot of damage. "Hit it!" he reminded his new friend, but another gorger sprung at Zack, and the SOLDIER moved to engage.

Tifa came flying in from the side, fists up. She hit the creature and Cloud's ribs rattled with the force of it. One. Two… Four hits before the gorger was stunned enough to withdraw its teeth and Cloud could shake it off. Tifa kicked it halfway across the room and Cloud cast Cure on himself.

He drew a shaky breath. "Anybody else hurt?" He got two negative answers, so he steadied his grip on Iron Blade and looked for his next target.

"Two!" Zack yelled from above.

"Three," he shouted back.

"Are you really keeping score?" Tifa looked at Cloud in disbelief. At his shrug, she clenched her jaw and punched the next gorger right across the room and into the wall so hard it actually went splat. "Four," she said, chin lifted.

Cloud nodded and Zack laughed.

Two more came out from under the platform. Zack killed them both with the fancy spinning slash he called Assault Twister. If he hadn't stumbled at the end, it would've been impressive.

The finish didn't dim Zack's joy. "Oh yeah!" He pumped his fist. "I've nearly got it figured out."

Up on the landing, the security key hung next to the passageway. There was a big, hand-made "RETURN KEY HERE" sign that was as aged and worn as the rest of the building. Cloud took the key and let them to the next warehouse area.

He could hear them before they'd walked even halfway there. He could hear gorgers and a drake. The drake sounded angry. Probably didn't like being caught indoors.

He filled Zack and Tifa in, but really, their only strategy was "enter the room and be ready". It worked okay though, because the gorgers were focused on the small drake, trying to get to it and bring it down.

The first thing Cloud did was to use his Assess materia. The results confirmed what he already knew: the drake was weak to wind attacks. He'd brought his Wind materia, figuring that would be the case. He cast Aerora, which definitely got the drake's attention.

Meanwhile, Zack and Tifa were ripping through the gorgers, shouting out kill counts. There were fewer in here than in the last room. Maybe the drake had killed some and the bodies had already dissolved.

Or maybe the fucking wererats had eaten them!

Cloud didn't know where they'd been hiding but three of them charged at him. He jumped towards the first one – a quick slash across its body – and used the momentum to hop to the next – another quick swing, strong enough to send it flying. He turned to face the final one.

This one he chopped down at – a high power slice he called Braver and Zack called a power attack. Whatever it was, it sliced the wererat in two. A quick back swing took care of the only one to survive this far.

He looked up in time to roll out of the way of the drake, sweeping in to do a breath attack.

Cloud readied himself to jump for an aerial attack, but Zack beat him to it.

It was a hard swing, and it forced the drake to the ground where Tifa was waiting. She dive-kicked it in the neck, and Cloud heard the snap from where he stood.

"Yes!" Zack did another fist pump when he landed. "That was awesome!" He held up a hand to Tifa, waiting for her to give him a high five. She almost didn't, and Zack's grin faded a little. In the end, she gave him a tap and his smile came back.

"That was great teamwork," Zack said. "I brought 'em down and you finished them. You're really good."

Tifa glowed at the compliment. Cloud knew it wasn't often people complimented her fighting skills and not her chest size or her cooking. "Did pretty good, yah."

Cloud cast a stasis spell on the drake's carcass. It would keep it from dissolving before they had a chance to dress it. It wasn't what Time materia was meant for, but every salvager knew the trick. Too bad it didn't work on the really large stuff.

"Mott said there's a Cerulean," Cloud said.

Zack pointed to the north door. "I can hear it out there."

Cloud looked at his watch – his original Barriers were done. "Right, heal up. I'll recast Barrier."

Tifa's Chakra cast created gold sparkles instead of the normal green. It was an odd materia – healing wounds and curing poison. She'd never told Cloud where she'd got it, either.

He drank an ether potion and cast Barrier. Cloud could feel the materia getting close to a new level of power. This cast was a lot easier and quicker than it had been two weeks ago. Probably because he'd cast it a lot more in the last two weeks than he had in any of the previous months. Usually he didn't bother with Barrier. Most of the things he encountered just didn't do enough damage to warrant the use of MP.

However, that was before he'd started hunting with Aerith. Aerith, who always gave him a cheeky smile and a curtsy dip when he protected her.

Zack led as they went through the door to what had once been a fenced yard. The surface was concrete, mostly intact, and the air was filled with a Cerulean drake as promised.

"Do you like the colour?" Cloud asked.

Zack put his hands on his hips and nodded. "It'll go great with my T-shirts."

Cloud sighed.

Buying Zack that lurid T-shirt in Wall Market had been a _joke_. He hadn't meant to start a trend.

Every shirt Zack had bought since then – _every single one_ – was bright to the point of blinding. Not even his pants were black, but instead muted greens and blues and purples. When it came time to dress, Zack would throw on whatever eye-popping item he wanted with no regard for Cloud's poor eyeballs.

Made him easy to keep track of in battle, though.

Cloud used his Wind materia to cast Aerora and keep the drake unbalanced. Zack jumped up to hit it. He shouted down instructions, and Tifa managed to get up there a couple times as well.

They were hurting it, but it fought back with a powerful pump of its wings. All three of them were knocked off their feet and sent rolling.

Somehow, Tifa managed to roll so that she could use the fencing as a springboard. She pushed off harder and faster than Cloud had ever seen her move. She caught the Cerulean under the chin and it dropped to the ground, dazed.

Not dazed enough to stop it completely, however. It opened its mouth….

"Watch for ice breath!" Cloud yelled.

Zack gave him a wave and jumped over its back. Tifa rolled to the side and came up kicking.

Cloud stuck to casting debuffs on it, while Tifa kicked the shit out of its ribs and spine. It tried to take off, to get away from its attackers, but Tifa grabbed a wing and _pulled._ Zack jumped on its back, pulled back his fist, and then punched the drake's head into the ground. The force of it left cracks in the concrete.

"How'd you do that?" Tifa asked, staring down at the near-flat skull.

"It's a good move, isn't it," Zack replied happily. "It was one of Shinra's man-made materia, Iron Fist. I loved that materia."

"So it's a materia." She sounded disappointed.

Cloud used his Time materia to cast a statis spell on the carcass. He used his filleting knife to slice open the drake's belly.

"Well it _was,_ " Zack said. "Maybe still is somewhere, but whatever. A lot of the materia I had just enhanced physical capabilities that I already had, so me and Cloud have been working out how to recreate those abilities."

"Then you can show me how?" Tifa's voice lit with possibilities.

Zack scratched his head. "Uhh. You have to be at least a little enhanced," he said. "Cloud can do it, because y'know, mako exposure." Tifa wiggled her fingers. Zack stopped to stare. "What? You, too?"

Ignoring them, Cloud carefully – oh so carefully – he removed the abdominal sac. Zack poked him and it wobbled. "Did you know Tifa was exposed to mako?"

Cloud set down his delicate burden. "Yah. Water was contaminated."

Tifa nodded. "Every spring, during run off, if the water wasn't brown it was green."

"Sometimes both." Cloud gave her a smile full of shared memories. Still careful, he slit the membrane and took out the liver and kidneys, and the other small organs he could sell, and put them in the cool box.

"Okay," Zack said, nodding. "Okay, that explains a lot. Well then, I don't see why you couldn't learn how to do it, or something like it at least. This is how I worked it out…."

While she and Zack talked about punching things really hard, Cloud cast Fira on the rest of the drake's guts and burnt them crisp to discourage scavengers. Last of all, he took the teeth and eyes, claws and heart. Everything else would pay the butcher to store and skin it for them.

Between them they tied the wings and tail to the body so they wouldn't drag. Tifa looked for a pole they could use to carry it, but Zack just heaved it up onto his shoulder. The head flopped nearly to his feet, and blood poured out of the stomach cavity.

"Ewww," Zack said. Unlike flesh, blood didn't dissolve. It just slowly dried until it was sticky or flaking.

In the next room Cloud dressed and tied the smaller drake, while Zack held the Cerulean up in a vain attempt to drain the rest of its blood.

"You can go ahead," Cloud said. "There's a short cut, and I need to put the keycard back."

To his surprise, Tifa offered to take the smaller drake, arguing it would be easier for Cloud to navigate the halls carrying the cool box than a floppy body. She wasn't wrong. Cloud closed the main doors after them and then sprinted back to the old loading bay.

Wererats had crept in to feast on a gorger carcass that hadn't dissolved completely. Cloud eyed them warily. They watched him the same way.

One of them, pushed out of the main group, stepped in his direction.

Outside of combat, Cloud didn't often use the enhancements Shinra's experiments had given him, but he had no desire to fight a pack of vicious rodents while carrying a crate of valuable drake parts. Since the wererats were opposite the entrance he needed, Cloud leaped from the platform, out the building, into the short hall on the far side of the room. He hit the fence and bounced a little.

He took a moment to listen, but he couldn't hear the rodents following.

He let out a relieved breath and then ran as fast as he could with the box. He could see Zack and Tifa just a bit ahead of him – although, it was more that he saw drake carcasses with human legs.

Cloud refreshed the statis spell on both the carcasses – just in time, too. The Cerulean drake was big enough that the warped Time cast wasn't reliable. He'd probably have to do it once more before they reached the butcher's industrial containment field.

There were more gorgers in the first area. They ignored them, running past before the creatures could attack.

They kept up a steady trot all the way to the gate. Narjin had it open, but Zack just snorted. Cloud admitted to himself that it would be tough to get the body through the entry, but it could be done. Just get the angle right…

Zack jumped over the gate, drake and all.

"Holy shit," Tifa breathed.

Cloud felt the same way, but he just grunted, "SOLDIER."

There were gasps from the people nearby as they passed through the crowd carrying the drake carcasses. Soon they had a bunch of kids around them, running to keep up.

Cloud called directions to Zack, who managed to shout encouragement at the mob of scrambling children while hauling 300 kilos of dead weight at a fast trot.

SOLDIER indeed.

When they entered the butcher's street, Sala was standing in the doorway.

Cloud saw a couple of the bigger kids on his doorstep. They'd obviously run ahead, hoping for a reward or just excited. Either way it worked out for them because Sala the back door open when they reached it. He waved them through to the cooler and had Zack put the larger drake on the cement floor, while Cloud's smaller carcass went on the table.

Sala touched the line of spelled stones and Cloud felt the shiver of a real statis spell fill the air all around them.

"Heya, Cloud," Sala said. "This is quite a haul, even for you." He had his arm out, and Cloud gripped the butcher's wrist in greeting. Sala was about Cloud's height, but large where Cloud was slim, and dark where Cloud was light. He could've been Barret Wallace's brother except that Sala had no anger in him.

Cloud nodded at Tifa. "You know Tifa from Seventh Heaven." Sala nodded and offered her his wrist. She took it, warrior to warrior.

Cloud nodded at Zack. "My friend, Zack Fair. Formerly of Shinra."

Sala hesitated when he saw Zack's eyes, but only for a moment. "Friend of Cloud's is good enough."

Zack grinned brightly as they clasped arms. "Cloud's a good guy. One of the best."

Cloud turned away to hide his blush. Tifa, however, was watching. She looked at Cloud then at Zack then back to Cloud. She gave him a wink and a thumbs up. Cloud just sighed.

Tifa was his oldest friend, but she'd grown up with the same limits on sexuality and gender that Cloud had. More perhaps, since as the mayor's daughter, she'd been forced into frills, piano lessons, and cooking. If Nibelheim hadn't burned, she'd've already been married to a decent guy and had a couple kids. Sometimes Cloud thought that she still saw that as part of her future, even though the village's limits on sexual choice didn't apply in Midgar.

What it came down to was Tifa didn't understand how Cloud could be attracted to both women and men equally, and sometimes at the same time. However, she _was_ trying. Unfortunately, her support generally came out in exaggerated winks, and awkward teasing.

They made the deal with the butcher: they'd get the skin, and he could sell everything else to cover the cost of the work. Both Cloud and Sala knew he was coming out ahead in the deal. If there wasn't already a line-up at his shop door of people wanting "dragon parts", Cloud didn't know Sector 7.

He did manage to convince Sala to throw in five kilos of dual horn steak and some bacon, (Cloud didn't care for drake meat, but even cheap dual horn could be delicious, and Sala hadn't given them the cheap cuts.)

"Need to deal with the rest of it before we can grill the steak," Cloud said once they'd left Sala's.

"Grill? Oh, man!" Zack practically quivered. "It's been soooo long since I had a decent steak."

"I grill a great steak," Tifa said. "Just need some mushrooms and whiskey." It sounded like an offer to Cloud, and it must have to Zack as well, because he practically stumbled.

"Sure?" Cloud asked.

She nodded. "Come by after you've cleaned up." She gave a little spin. "Hafta bring my share of the reward anyway, right?" She waited for Cloud to agree before leaving them to head to her apartment.

"Will I have to worry about poison?" Zack asked once she was gone into the crowd.

Cloud shook his head. "Nah. She'd just punch you."

Zack laughed. "Oh _thanks_. Nice way to reassure a guy."

Negotiating with the alchemist took a lot longer than it had with Sala. He was the only alchemist in Sector 7, and he was Wutaian. Neither of those things make Ko easy to deal with. If it wasn't so hard to get to Wall Market from here, Cloud would've been tempted to tell him to go suck himself. Ko knew it, too. It was there in his eyes.

However, Cloud also knew that everyone had seen them carrying the two carcasses through Sector 7. That meant if the guy didn't have drake-based items available by tomorrow, the pharmacists and doctors and quacks would tear his shop down in frustration. Plus, Cloud was quite willing to dispose of the drake parts in the wastes to make his point. He'd done it before, and Ko knew he'd do it again.

Zack decided to wring the blood from his shirt onto the shop floor. It was thick and landed in gloopy, unattractive puddles. It was enough to speed up the negotiations.

Nine hundred gil richer, they finally left the shop.

"Next stop, Beginner's Hall for a quick wash," Cloud said, but Zack was already across the lane buying a cheaply embroidered shirt of fake silk. It was bright yellow with multi-coloured butterflies in equally garish colours.

Cloud wanted to cover his eyes, but his hand was drenched in drake blood.

.o0|0o.

It took a little under an hour for them to be ready to head to Seventh Heaven.

First, the outdoor showers at Beginner's Hall, where they stepped in fully dressed to rinse out the worst of the blood. These were open showers – just faucets on a porch with a grated floor, so anyone who was interested could watch them. Turned out a lot of people were interested.

Zack handled all the questions and comments from the people hanging around, which was nice. The former SOLDIER was more than happy to describe move-by-move everything the drakes had done and everything they'd done to counter. He was generous, too. Playing up Cloud's and Tifa's contributions to the fights. Well, playing up Cloud's. Tifa had been as deadly as Cloud had figured she would be.

He thought, as he often did, that it was too bad she let herself get stuck behind the counter at the bar, looking after Wallace's kid.

Then he thought, as he always did, that it was her choice in the end. All he could do was respect it.

Since they were there, they collected their reward from Wymer. Remedy and echo mist potions, and a nice star bracelet with two materia slots.

Cloud had seen something similar at the weapons store next door, but he didn't like to buy stuff from there. The guy overcharged because he knew his proximity to the Neighbourhood Watch gave him a better reputation than he deserved.

He gave the bangle to Zack, who immediately gave it back, "I don't have a lot of materia." Cloud shrugged. Maybe Tifa would like it.

They dripped their way towards their place, still followed by kids asking excited questions. Zack decided to shake himself like a dog, making them all scatter in giggling terror.

"How old are you again?" Cloud asked, running a hand over his face to get the water off.

"Twenty-six!" Zack shouted. He smiled wide and stretched his arms out to the obscured sky. "Young enough to enjoy being alive!"

It was a sobering reminder that the former SOLDIER had almost not gotten a chance to experience this.

By the time they left the apartment (clean, dry, and changed) it was probably close to midday though it was always hard to tell on the ground floor. The huge lights under the plates had two levels: on or dim. Zack's multi-coloured butterflies glowed horribly anyways.

To stop himself from thinking of the latest addition to Zack's wardrobe, Cloud thought of the meal ahead. He was definitely looking forward to having some of that steak, and with Tifa's tangy mushrooms as a side… His mouth watered just thinking of it.

Weirdly as they neared Sector 7's central square, Zack's steps slowed.

Finally, Cloud stopped. "What's up."

Zack tried shrugging and smiling and denying anything at all was wrong, but Cloud just waited, arms crossed, until the guy settled and sighed. "Maybe this isn't a good idea," Zack said.

"Eating fresh grilled steak is always a good idea."

Zack huffed a soft laugh. "Well, okay. True, but… " A sigh. "I have a feeling I won't exactly be welcome."

Cloud made a noise that was maybe a question, so Zack went on. "I kinda ran into the guy who owns the bar?" he said. "Big, black dude with muscles bigger than my head—"

Cloud nodded. "Barret Wallace."

Zack rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, Barret. Well, when I met him, he kind of gave me the impression that I wouldn't be welcome in his bar."

Cloud knew Tifa liked Wallace, or felt sympathy for the guy or something, but Cloud… Didn't. Barret Wallace was loud, hot-headed, and he was a bit of a bully. Cloud avoided talking to the man as much as possible.

"One, it's not his bar," Cloud said. "He hangs out there, acts like he owns it because nobody argues with him, but it belongs to Tifa. Two, Tifa invited you. Wallace can leave if he doesn't like it. Three, Wallace talks big, but he's slow. You could take him."

Zack's mouth opened and closed several times. It was kind of entertaining.

"To be fair, he's got good reason not to like Shinra," Cloud continued. "Same reason as Tifa."

Zack frowned. "He's from Nibelheim?"

Cloud laughed. "Corel."

"Corel?" Zack repeated, baffled. "The coal town?"

"Shinra was going to put in a reactor. Something went wrong, the whole place blew. His village was destroyed and most everyone he knew with it."

"Fuuuuuck!" Zack rubbed a hand over his face. "When?"

"Mmm, four years ago?" Cloud guessed. It had happened around the time he'd been in the mako coma, so four years ago sounded right.

"Is there _anything_ Shinra hasn't blown up or destroyed?" Zack wailed.

"Haven't wrecked Midgar yet," Cloud replied. He kept his serious while Zack goggled at him. As soon as a small smiled lifted a corner of his lips, Zack rolled his eyes and whacked shoulder.

"Asshole," Zack said.

Cloud just laughed. "C'mon," he said, tipping his head at the bar. "Let's go eat our weight in steak."

Zack smiled back. " _You_ might be able to, tiny thing like you."

Cloud rolled his eyes. "I'm average size, Zack."

"Really," Zack said in mock surprise. "You seem so short compared to me."

Now Cloud kinda hoped that Wallace _would_ be at the bar.

.o0|0o.

\-----

 **From:** Zack Fan Club

**Contents:**

It's been nearly four years since we officially shut down, but we're back! Because… despite official reports, it looks like our favourite SOLDIER boy is back too!

Look at these pictures!

They were taken in Sector 7 this morning, when a couple monster hunters brought back not one, but _two_ drakes from a derelict factory. They caused quite the stir when they carried the carcasses through the streets of the under city.

Look at the sword on the dark-haired one. That is definitely Zack Fair's famous Buster sword – the same one he inherited from his mentor, Angeal Hewley. And if you picture him in a black SOLDIER First uniform, then there's no doubt: that's our boy!

For legal reasons, we're renaming the fan club. "Fair Trade" was suggested, but if you have a better suggestion, let us know.

Finally, keep your eyes open Fair Fans. WE NEED MORE PICS!

\-----

Thanks to Black Suit for the update. Glad we weren't the only one hoping the report of Zack's death was a mistake. Although… why _did_ Shinra think he was dead? And where has he _been_ for the last five years? Is it the same place as Genesis Rhapsodos who was also seen a few months ago?

Once we have a secure server, we can discuss.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I grew up in the middle of the period when North American women were only allowed (deliberate word choice) to work outside the home as long as it didn't effect their "their real work", A paying job outside the home was just a "side gig" for a woman. Her real role was still to support her husband and look after the kids and home. The OG was developed by people who grew up in that mindset and (to me) it comes through very clearly in the way they wrote Tifa's character.
> 
> Part of the problem could be that she was a late addition to the party, (perhaps because developers got halfway through and then realized they'd killed off their only viable love interest). Whatever the reason, they didn't have time to develop her character. Instead, they converted their monk type into a female, and added a childhood connection to Cloud that would both jump start their possible romance and let her fill in Cloud's backstory, because Cloud is the hero and his backstory was more important. Okay, fine.
> 
> Except, this means that Tifa doesn't get any story _of her own_. Barret resolves things with Dyne. Vincent sees Lucrecia. Nanaki learns the truth about his father. Cid gets to space. Even Yuffie gets to mend things with her dad if you choose the Wutai sidequest. Tifa has…. Nothing. Nothing outside of supporting Cloud and looking after Marlene. (Look! 1995 society - we haven't betrayed you! She may be one of the best fighters in the game, but she's still a proper girl! Still realizes that being a mother is the most important thing... [Sorry.] /rant)
> 
> It's not that I dislike the idea of Cloud & Tifa as a couple, there was often a nice vibe between them, but why is it just assumed? In fact, why does there even need to be romance between the two? Because fans expect it? Because the only reason to have female characters in video games was to be the male lead's love interest? Those really aren't good enough reasons.
> 
> So, in order to resist OG's push to make Tifa nothing more than Cloud's Future Girlfriend, I have made her angry – blindly, obsessively angry. It's one of the things that has added strain to her relationship with Cloud. It's also colouring her view of Zack, because he was SOLDIER and nothing symbolizes Shinra better than SOLDIER.
> 
> We'll see what happens as her character develops, because this is my story and I can do that with her.
> 
> P.S. This is being fleshedout better in the Remake, but so far, it still seems like Tifa is lying to Cloud about his history. I should probably replay it - just to check. =D 
> 
> P.P.S. I probably spent as much time editing this end note as I did the whole chapter. heh


	12. Food for Thought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zack finally meets the people who hang out in Seventh Heaven, and receives a couple uncomfortable proposals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that this is completely unbeta'ed, so if you spot any errors – from punctuation to plot holes – feel free to let me know.

Zack trailed Cloud up the steps and into the interior.

It was a lot nicer than he'd expected. Most of the buildings he'd seen down here seemed to have been thrown together and then continually reinforced. However, it looked like there'd been an effort made to make Seventh Heaven sturdy and cozy from the beginning. It looked like a Kalm inn, instead of a slum bar.

Walking inside, it was busy, but it was easy enough to pick out the regulars. They were the ones who stared at Zack as he followed behind Cloud.

Zack tried nodding and smiling, saying "How de do". Some responded with their own nods, but many did not. One lady, wearing what looked like a metal corset, gave him a dirty look. Zack didn't bother smiling at her

Cloud led him to the bar, a long, polished slab of wood that even had a few brass accents. Behind it was a kid, couldn't have been more than four years old. The girl looked at Cloud and frowned. "You're late."

Cloud sighed. "Everybody keeps saying that." He lifted his cool box. "Where you want it?"

The girl nodded, as if Cloud had finally done something right. She jumped down from whatever she was standing on and ran to the right. Cloud followed her, and Zack trailed behind Cloud.

"Tifa says, if you want her to cook the steak, you have to help with the other stuff."

"Fair," Cloud said, passing through a low swing door.

Zack made to follow, but the kid closed the low door blocking the entrance. "Who's that?"

"My friend," Cloud said. "Marlene, meet Zack Fair. He'll prep for lunch too." Zack put up his hands and tried to look as unthreatening as possible.

It didn't help. The kid put her hands on her hips and glared. "Nuh-uh. I don't know him, so he can't come back here."

"Your dad say that?" Cloud asked. She nodded vigorously. Cloud gave Zack a look, a question. Zack nodded. He'd be okay. "Okay. Since your dad said it, Zack'll stay out." With one last suspicious look, the kid turned away.

Zack swallowed down his nerves. He could do this. He used to be good at it. He used to go into rooms full of strangers all the time and not think anything of it, confident that he'd come out with at least a couple new friends. This was no different.

He turned and most everybody's eyes slid away. The steel-corset lady was staring at him with narrowed eyes, but the aggression was missing. It was more speculative. Best not to risk it.

At least the big black guy wasn't in the crowd. Zack might've gone up to him and started a fight, just because a fight would be more familiar than this.

A young guy, red skullcap, kinda plump, waved at Zack. He looked friendly. The guy next to him with a red headband didn't look quite so friendly, but he didn't look hostile either. Zack shrugged internally, smiled externally, and strode with fake confidence to the table.

"Heya. I'm Zack." He was probably talking too loud.

The younger one jumped up, hand out. "Zack, Hi! I'm Wedge. That's Biggs." Headband guy raised a hand. "Have a seat. Did you really bring back _two_ blue dragons?"

Halfway down to the chair, Zack paused. "Ahh, no, man," he said. "Two drakes." Wedge and his friend exchanged looks. Maybe they didn't know the difference.

" _Still_ two of them," Wedge went on, enthusiasm unabated. "By _yourself!_ "

Again, Zack paused. "Well, Cloud and Tifa were there. Tifa, especially, was awesome."

"Tifa?" Biggs repeated. " _Our_ Tifa?"

Had they never seen her fight? "Yeah. Tifa. She kicked the first drake and snapped its neck. It was awesome." She'd moved like a Wutai ninja. If he'd still been part of Shinra, he would've had to speculate on who'd taught her. Good thing he didn't owe Shinra a thing, then.

Wedge and Biggs looked at each other, and Zack could see the moment they decided to let it go. "So, you used to be in SOLDIER, right?" Biggs asked. "Why'd you leave?"

It was an innocent question, an expected question, but Zack couldn't answer it. 'Why'd he leave?'

Like he'd had a choice. Like he'd filled in forms and submitted them to HR.

Like he'd had a farewell cake and got a handshake from his boss.

He hadn't left. He'd _escaped_.

He gave Biggs a tight smile. "It was leave or die."

He didn't want to be here anymore, talking about this with strangers. "'Scuse me. I need a drink." And he was out of the chair, halfway to the bar, before the words had fully left his mouth.

At the other end, he could see Cloud chopping something, watched intently by Marlene. Zack wished he was there beside them. Behind the bar.

Tifa was scraping the surface of the grill. She'd changed from the long pants and long sleeves into a tank top and micro-shorts with little skirt like things.

"Aren't you afraid of hot oil in that outfit?"

She gave him an amused glance. "Not cooking with oil."

Not exactly the point, but Zack decided to change the subject. "Can I help you with anything?"

Her look this time was more searching. Zack shifted under her gaze. "How're you at darts?"

Darts? That was chucking things, right? "I have no idea."

"Wedge!" she shouted. "Zack's never played darts." The bar stilled.

Zack stared at her while she smiled at him. Behind him, Wedge shouted in outrage, and the bar erupted. "You're evil," he said to Tifa.

She lifted a brow. "Don't forget it."

A hand landed on his shoulder. "You've never played darts? Oh man! You're going to love it."

"Wedge has a standing wager that no one can beat his score," Biggs said from behind his friend.

"Yeah," Wedge grinned. "I have a Luck Up materia riding on it."

"He's had it so long it's nearly mastered," Tifa added. She held out a tankard of beer. Zack took it with a sarcastic thanks.

By the time they reached the corner with the dart board, there was crowd. Zack could hear bets being tossed back and forth until Biggs shouted everyone down. "No bets until after the first round! Great goddess, people! Let the guy learn the game first."

It didn't stop all the betting, but it did settle everyone down. It was quiet enough for Zack to hear someone say, "I thought SOLDIERs wore black."

Zack grinned. He was wearing the electric yellow shirt with the bright, embroidered butterflies he'd bought in Little Da-chao just today. His pants were an almost complimentary green – almost.

Blushing lightly, Wedge offered him his choice of red or green darts. He took the red. They were more orange toned.

Wedge explained the rules and the scoring and the stance and the placement and…. He might've gone into the history if Biggs hadn't coughed. Still, it was a good briefing: clear, thorough, with a wealth of background. Everything Zack needed to know in order to hit the target every time.

During the lecture, Zack lightly tossed the darts in his hand. He focused on each on in turn, gauging the weight, the balance, the feel.

Finally, Wedge demonstrated his throw – light hold, pinkie up – and follow through.

Wedge threw a couple, landing one in the black portion of the segment labeled 20 – "That's only a single 20" – and then a green 20 – "That's a double 20, worth forty points" – and finally in the smallest 20, the red. "And that's a treble, worth three times the points – highest on the board. Got it?"

"Got it," Zack confirmed.

"Okay, practice round," Wedge said, happily backing away from the throw zone.

Zack stepped up and focused. The noise of the crowds died away. There was only the uneven weight of the dart in his hand, the light breeze in the air, the feel of his muscles from his toes to his top. Stillness… Calmness… Focus.

He hadn't been able to do this, to _be_ this, before Hojo's mako tube, and the endless, endless hours of nothing.

He threw the dart and it landed in the centre of white 1.

The crowd around him gasped thinking he'd missed. There was a pause of absolute silence, and then the noise started up again. Gil changed hands as the betting redoubled.

Wedge said something encouraging and told him to throw again.

This dart's weight was a little different – heavier towards the back. Zack gauged the throw. Black 2, but a little closer to the outside than he'd planned.

He ignored the increased noises from the betting and arguing in the rest of the room and weighed the last dart. He gave it a light spin. It was better balanced than the other two. He aimed, threw, and the dart landed in the middle of the bullseye.

Yeah, he could work with these. 301 points in seven darts or less. No problem.

"I'm ready for a game," he said to Wedge. He didn't speak up, but Wedge's wide smile said the guy had heard him just fine.

Wedge collected the red darts from the board. "Biggs, get the man an ale!" He held out the darts to Zack. "It's not a proper game if you don't have ale."

What surprised Zack was that Biggs actually did it. He went to the bar, and came back holding three tankards, filled with yeasty goodness. And he was _excited_ by the game. Honestly, genuinely…

"Good luck," he said, and clinked glasses with the two of them. "No one's ever beat Wedge at darts."

Wedge blushed and dipped his head. "Just always had a knack for it, I guess. And a lot of practice!"

Biggs nodded. "A _lot_ of practice. If only it translated to gun skills," and it was on. The two started teasing each other, revealing years of friendship – maybe more than friendship – and the people watching took sides. Obviously the two were well known and popular.

Zack tuned into the conversations filling the bar. Wedge was odds-on favourite, even though they all knew Zack had been SOLDIER.

People started sentences with "Remember the time Wedge…" and others would fill in with some other wonderful throw that had let Wedge win the game. People _paid_ Wedge for lessons he was considered that good.

Zack looked at Wedge over the rim of his tankard. The man wasn't slim and wasn't fit and most people wouldn't consider him handsome. He was nice and he was friendly, and he seemed genuinely happy to be teaching Zack the game he excelled at.

Decision made, Zack lost the game by thirty-three points.

"Guess I just need more practice," he said with a rueful smile.

When he finally made it back to the bar, Cloud was at the large grill, cooking the steaks under Tifa's watchful eye. Surprisingly, other patrons had brought in food – salads and casseroles, and even desserts – while Zack had been losing to Wedge.

"That was nice, what you did," Tifa said, refilling his tankard. Zack tried to look baffled. Tifa just shook her head.

Someone pinched his bum.

Zack whirled and saw two nice-ish looking women. One with darker skin and kinked hair, the other paler with white-ish stripes bleached into otherwise brown hair. They both wore heavy makeup and low-cut shirts that displayed a lot of generous chest.

"Uhh, ladies?" Zack said cautiously.

"You're very cute," the darker one said with a slinky smile.

"And you've got a great ass," said white stripes with a wink.

Zack made some sound, but not a useful one. Behind him Tifa groaned.

"We heard SOLDIERs have great stamina in bed," White Stripes continued.

"And we were hoping you would prove the rumour true." Then they both smiled at him.

There was absolutely no mistaking their invitation for anything other than an offer for a threeway.

Zack could feel the blush rising. "Uhhh," he said again, raising his hands. "Thank you. Ladies," he nodded. "It's a lovely offer, but my heart – and body – are already claimed."

"She doesn't have to know," said White Stripes,

His smile stiffened. Zack decided he didn't like her much. "I'd know."

"She'd knock him flat if he slept around without permission," Cloud said from the side. White Stripes shifted her gaze to Cloud.

"Permission?" asked the other one, intrigued. She raised an eyebrow. "Well, if your girlfriend's hot…."

"I'm more likely to get it than you," Cloud added, and then Zack wasn't the only one blushing. But he was, perhaps, blushing harder than anyone else. However, it did manage to get the two women to go away.

He turned back to the bar. Tifa looked more uncomfortable than he felt, but Cloud just looked like himself.

"Thanks for the save."

"Worked," Cloud said easily. So easily that maybe he hadn't meant it.

Unfortunately, now Zack was wondering just how far Aerith's "interesting" book had gone into the world of sexuality, and if she really would give permission… No. Stop.

Cloud was his friend. Zack wasn't going to risk that by adding a complication he really wasn't ready for. He might never be ready for. Maybe one day if Aerith ever got tired of him…

Thankfully, he was pulled away by Wedge who introduced him to Steel Breastplate Lady. "Jessie's an actress!" Steel Breastplate Lady flirted as much at the two women at the bar had, but unlike them, Zack could tell it was all for show, a game of words.

He still didn't flirt back, but he allowed himself to relax. He allowed himself to tell some of the funnier stories he had from being a SOLDIER. From those first horrible days of adjustment where nothing was safe and going pee in the morning was a lesson in pain tolerance. To tripping and falling over nothing, or running into doors because your legs were moving faster than your brain.

The front door swung open with a bang, and Barret Wallace strode through. His previous absence was explained by the massive keg of beer on one shoulder and a crate of cider in his other hand. "Now _this_ is what I call a party!" and it was. There was music, and talking, and darts (with Wedge showing off his throwing skills which _were_ impressive).

When Cloud shouted that the rare steaks were ready, Zack went up to get his (much to Jessie's horror). The bar top was filled with food. None of the dishes were huge and a couple had obviously been bought from a street vendor, but an attempt had been made to make this a community thing.

Had he ever had this when he'd been SOLDIER?

Certainly, Angeal had had him over for supper a few times, and sometimes Genesis and Sephiroth had been there. The regular SOLDIERs had gone to the Goblin Bar as a group a few times, and maybe some of them had vacationed together, but _this?_ Group potluck for no reason other than they'd had a good day? They hadn't done this.

Eventually, it became a bit overwhelming. Zack had been alone in the lab for three years after Hojo left. The evil minions had talked around him but never to him. Then he'd been on the road for another year mostly by himself. Now he usually hung out with Cloud or Aerith, or both, and yeah, they spent time _in_ crowds, but they weren't often part of them.

Cloud tapped him on the shoulder and jerked his head towards the door. Gratefully, Zack followed his friend outside. There were small tables made of cable spindles, and scavenged chairs scattered around the porch. A few people were out here, smoking and chatting, but the noise wasn't as intense. There was room here to breath.

"A bit much, yah?" Cloud said, handing Zack beer in a bottle as he passed by. Cloud sat and immediately leaned his chair back on two legs, crossing his feet on the porch railing. He was between Zack and the door, and he had just completely blocked access to where Zack sat. Another dozen muscles relaxed and Zack's breath deepened automatically.

"Not used to crowds anymore." Might as well keep it simple.

Cloud grunted and offered him a fork. For the first time Zack noticed that Cloud had brought a plate filled with desert foods.

"You did a good job on the steaks," he said.

Cloud snorted. "Hard not to with Tifa supervising."

"She _was_ pretty serious about it," Zack said with a smile. He took a forkful of something that was orange and slightly puffy. It was surprisingly good. "It was nice of you to donate them."

"Couldn't eat them all," Cloud said with a shrug. Zack wasn't so sure. He could eat _a lot_ , but.… He also couldn't argue with the results.

"Did you give Tifa her share of the rewards?"

Cloud nodded. "All squared away."

Then Zack remembered what Cloud had said at the bar, when the two ladies were being uncomfortably forceful. He snuck a glance at his friend. Cloud wasn't looking at him. He was lifting a forkful of white fluff to his mouth. And then it was in, and Cloud's eyes closed, and he crooned in enjoyment.

Zack looked out over the square and let himself wonder why such a large open area had been left when space was at such a premium down here. It was cowardice and he knew it. "So, ahh. What you said before."

Cloud opened his eyes and looked at Zack, confused.

He cleared his throat. "When those… I mean, about Aerith and –"

"It worked," Cloud said, confused.

"Yeah, yeah. It did. Work. Thanks," Zack sputtered. Cloud just looked confused.

"Wasn't an invitation," he finally said.

Zack nodded, too high, too fast. "No, right. Yeah, sure." He dug into a cake? It was a cake. Tasted like embarrassment.

Cloud was smiling, eyes sly. "Honeymoon lasts two years, yah?" he said. "I'll bring it up again in three." Zack choked and Cloud laughed.

He was just about to knock his friend out his chair– 

" _There_ you are!"

Barret Wallace's voice was as big as the man himself. Especially as he wasn't growling threats.

"We're relaxing." Cloud's voice held definite hints of 'go away'. Zack agreed with that sentiment, so he turned his punch into a grab for his beer and stayed quiet.

"If you wanna relax, I got someplace you can relax – _in private_." He spoke directly to Zack, leaning over Cloud as if he didn't exist.

Cloud covered his eyes. "This again."

"What?" Zack asked, barely heard over Barret's snapped, "I ain't _talkin'_ to you, merc!"

"We're both mercenaries," Zack said, confused.

"Well then – merc. I gotta business proposition – _for_ _you_." Again, he completely ignored Cloud's presence.

Zack looked around – there was nobody close. "Okay then…?"

Barret frowned. "Not here. It's private."

Cloud snorted. "Worst kept secret in the sector."

"I still ain't talkin' to you, Strife," he growled. So it wasn't just ex-SOLDIERs that set the man off. Good to know.

"Already turned you down." Cloud didn't bother to sneer.

"What's going on?" Zack asked Cloud. When Barret opened his mouth to answer, Zack held up his hand.

Cloud looked at him, looked around the porch and the square. There were few people around, but it was enough to make Cloud sigh. "He's right. Not here."

Zack looked up (way up) at Barret. "Okay," he said. "Take us to your secret hideout." Then he grinned so very wide.

Barret didn't appreciate it. He swore and growled out a "Fine!" before hitting Cloud's leg. "Move your feet, Strife!" Cloud dropped his legs, and Barret stormed past both of them.

"Not the way to their 'secret' lair," Cloud said softly, curling out of his chair.

Zack hadn't brought his sword to the bar, but he thought maybe Cloud had a couple daggers on him. Mind you, he'd once fought off a terrorist attack using a beach umbrella, so he could probably improvise…

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

When Zack got up to follow Barret, he was inexplicably relieved when Cloud came too.

Not that he thought the man was trying to lure him to his death, but this friendliness was a complete change from how he'd spoken to Zack before. It made the soldier in him cautious.

They walked around to the back of the building, where feral cats were their only company. Barret turned around, saw Cloud, and barked, "What the hell? Didn't invite you, Strife."

Cloud shrugged and looked at Zack.

Zack looked at Barret . "You're not going to try to kill me?" Zack wished the man would take off his sunglasses.

" _Hells_ no!" He actually sounded offended. "I _said_ I gotta job offer for you."

Zack waved at Cloud. "Cloud's my partner. Any job I do, he'll be involved."

That made Barret scowl harder. "Don't need two. Just you." He pointed a finger at Zack and his fist was clenched hard enough for the knuckles to be pale. They got paler as he squeezed harder the longer the silence spun out…

Cloud broke it. "I'll help Tifa behind the bar, since, y'know, Marlene's only _four_." It was a very pointed comment and Zack saw it strike home on the big man.

Barret raised his gun arm, pointing it at Cloud who just stood there, arms crossed. "I don' need you talkin' 'bout my daughter like that."

"Be a better father," Cloud said, voice flat. He nodded once at Zack and then just strode away, ignoring Barret's calls to "come back here, you little pissant!"

When it became obvious Cloud was gone, Barret punched a crater into the stone wall on the other side of the railing. "That son of a bitch! What right's he have to say those kinds of things? Why I should…." He shook his gun-arm and shouted at the sky.

Zack balanced on his toes, ready to spring forward or away depending on how the big man moved, but Barret just swore and punched the wall a couple more times. He finally swiped a hand through the air, as if wiping Cloud from his mind. "Fuck it. And fuck him!" A quick heavy breath and he turned to face Zack once again.

Zack waited: attack or talk?

"We wanna hire you for a job," Barret spat out.

Zack made a sound that could've been encouraging.

"We'll pay you fifteen hundred gil." Again with the we.

"Who's 'we'?"

Barret scowled. "I'll tell who _we_ are when you agree to the job."

"Tell me the job, and I'll tell you if I agree." Barret appeared to be grinding his teeth, so Zack bounced a little on his toes. This was kind of fun.

"Whachyou know about mako?" he asked.

Zack stopped bouncing. He tried to bring moisture back to his suddenly dry mouth.

He must have been quiet too long because Barret started lecturing him. "Mako is the lifeblood of the planet, and Shinra's bleedin' it dry," he shouted, gesturing broadly to make his point. "Shinra sucks up mako while the soil turns to dust, the air fills with smog, and the flowers die. The planet bleeds green like you and me bleed red," He almost poked Zack in the chest. "The hell you think's gonna happen when it's all gone, huh!? Answer me!"

Zack watched the gun-arm come _that_ close to his heart. "Uhh, die?"

Barret loomed over Zack. "You think it's funny? Dyin'?"

Zack was tempted to say that he knew of worse alternatives, but he didn't think the man would understand he was being absolutely truthful. Plus, Zack didn't want to discuss his past with this man.

"I think we all do it eventually," he made his voice calm, serious.

Barret sneered. "A piece of the Lifestream is destroyed every time a reactor turns on. We kill the planet to run your cars, your oven, your goddamned electric _dildos!_ You gonna stand there and pretend you can't hear the planet cryin' out in pain? I know you can! I hear it every damn day!"

"You really hear that?" Zack asked.

"Damn straight I do!" Wallace hit himself on the chest.

"Huh." Zack was pretty sure the only person who could hear the Lifestream was Aerith, but whatever. "Okay, so you got a hard-on for saving the planet. What's that got to do with me?"

"We need to save it! Those reactors just keep sucking up mako. While you sleep, while you eat, while you shit!" Zack dodged a whirling arm. "They don' rest, and they don' care. So they need to be stopped! "

"And how do you plan to do that?" Zack crossed his arms. He thought he might have an idea of what Barret's plan was going to be, and if he was right….

"We blow 'em up!"

Yup, that was what Zack had thought.

"Show those Shinra bastards that we won' let 'em kill the planet or us!"

Zack held in his sigh. "And how do you plan to do that?" he asked reasonably. "The reactors are remotely secured with passcodes, drones, mechs and – I dunno – they probably got lasers by now. Plus, they're all designed like mazes. If you don't know the way, you'll never find the core."

Barret's frown had been growing bigger and deeper the longer Zack talked. "We gotta map!" he shouted.

Zack's eyebrows went up. "You… have a map."

"And your damn passcodes."

"Uh-huh," Zack said. He cleared his throat – it was either that or break out laughing. "By any chance, did a tiny red head in a black suit give you it?" No response. "How about a young blonde woman with an uneven haircut?" Barret stiffened and flushed.

This time Zack _did_ laugh. "Ramuh's little balls, I knew it. That's fucking hilarious."

If anything, Barret's face tightened even further. "She's a sympathizer!"

"She's a fucking _Turk!_ " Zack corrected. He shook his head, still smiling "Oh man, you've been played." Barret reached out with his left hand as if to grab Zack's shirt. Zack side-stepped easily.

"You don't know that!" he insisted. "She could be any Shinra employee tired of their greed and corruption."

"Shinra employees who betray Shinra tend to disappear into the Science departments labs really quickly." Zack paused. "Sometimes they don't even have to have betrayed Shinra." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his tone.

Barret, who'd been pacing and stomping, whirled back to Zack. "That's what happened to you, right? Shinra left you to die in some dark hole. You didn' do them no wrong, but they sure wronged you. Isn't that right, Mister First Class?"

Zack leaned back on one foot, arms crossed defensively. "And if that's true?"

"Then you gotta want to get some revenge!" he slapped his gun-arm into his flesh hand, and Zack winced at the force. "Get some payback for the crap they did to you."

The only payback he wanted was Hojo dead. He might consider adding Heidegger, but Zack didn't think that's what Barret wanted from him though.

"Listen to me, Barret," Zack said firmly. He put a hand on the man's shoulder. "There are cameras all over those reactors. You'd be filmed coming and going. Are _those_ on those plans of yours?"

Barret frowned in thought.

"I didn't think so." Zack kept talking, "If a Turk gave you those plans - and if they're any good, they definitely came from a Turk – then it's because they're setting you up for something that will benefit Shinra."

Barret snorted. "Shinra wouldn' blow up their own reactor!"

"Wouldn't they?" Zack raised his brows and Barret flinched, just a little. "Before I… left, Shinra blamed Wutai for the eco-terrorists. They might think blaming Wutai for blowing up a reactor would be a good way to restart the war."

"A war with Wutai won' benefit Shinra."

Zack snorted. "Last time they went to war, Shinra started charging taxes to pay for it. The army, and the weapons and science divisions got huge increases in budget, all paid for by the common people, and the common people didn't complain," he explained. "Nobody rebelled, because they all believed the lie that invading Wutai would keep them comfortable, would keep them safe. And they'll agree to it again if a reactor blows up right beside them."

Barret opened his mouth. Zack talked faster. "There are other ways to change the world," he said. "Develop a reliable alternative to mako power, for one. One that'll work down here." He lifted his chin to indicate the light-eating plate above them. "President Shinra doesn't pay attention to what happens down here, so you could have the system up and running all over the sector before he even noticed."

"I'm not…" Barret shuffled awkwardly. "I'm not good at that kind of stuff."

"Then find someone who is," Zack said. He tipped his head to the side, teasing out the memory. "Did you know Cosmo Canyon doesn't use a gram of mako to power its communities? And all the engineers who worked in the space program. They got laid off, but they've got the brains to figure that shit out."

For a moment, Zack thought he'd sold the big gunner on his idea, but eventually Barret shook his head. "Nah. It's too slow. The planet could die before we made anything' happen."

Zack rolled his eyes. "Or _you_ could. And then what'll happen to Marlene."

Barret came back at him, gun-arm raised. "You got _no right_ bringin' Marlene into this!" he boomed. "I'm gonna make the world a _better_ place for her! Make sure she _has_ a world to grow up _in!_ "

Zack raised his hands and backed away. "I still say the only lives you'll improve are Shinra's but hey. Have at 'er if you're determined."

"Fifteen hundred gil! _That's_ what we're offerin'."

"For what?" Zack asked, with a disbelieving laugh. "To walk into a trap and do something suicidally stupid? I don't think so."

"Not doing it?" It was Cloud, coming back around the bar with Tifa beside him.

"Not for a hundred thousand gil," Zack confirmed.

"Why not," Tifa asked. "We have the plans. Have the equipment. Just need some protection getting in."

"Like I told your friend, it's a trap. You're being set up by Shinra and once you've done what they want, they will squash you flat." He turned to Cloud. "Did they ask you to go?"

Cloud nodded. "Don't do revenge jobs," he said quietly.

"It's _not_ revenge," Barret nearly shouted it.

Cloud looked at Barret. He was pretty fucking calm considering he was facing down an angry man a nearly two heads taller than he was. Zack admired that.

"If it's just concern for the planet, then why didn't you argue against the reactor going into Corel. Why–" Cloud raised his voice over Barret's growl. "Why was it only _after_ Corel was destroyed you decided Shinra – sorry, _mako_ – was bad? "

"It really _is_ bad, Cloud," Tifa said. She grabbed one of Cloud's arms and pleaded. "Of all people, you know how harmful liquid mako is. And, and you said the creatures around Midgar are all mutated and strange compared to places where there're no reactors."

"Did say that," Cloud admitted. "But that's not the same as thinking blowing up a reactor or two is a good idea. Or will fix anything." He paused, frowning at his childhood friend. "If Zack's wrong and it's not a trap, Shinra will still use it to make life worse for everyone. Hard enough getting between sectors now, imagine under full lockdown. Or maybe they rebuild all the walls and fill them up with cement. Then ground level's not a problem anymore."

"You can' change anythin' if you live your life in fear," Barret shouted at Cloud.

"Not great if you live yours in anger, either." Cloud looked first at Tifa then at Barret.

"They killed everyone in Nibelheim, Cloud. They killed our parents."

"You must want payback!" Barret added.

"That was Sephiroth," Cloud said.

"He was Shinra's tool. They let it happen," she shot back. It sounded like a familiar argument. "We lost our parents, our _friends_ –"

"Stop!" Cloud's frown was fierce. "They _weren't_ my friends. Know they were yours, but _nobody_ in Nibelheim was my friend but you. So I don't feel a need to get vengeance for their deaths." When both Tifa and Barret started to speak, Cloud held up his free hand again. "Am I angry about my ma? Sure. But killing random people a continent away won't bring her back."

Tifa released his arm and took a half-step back. "You've really changed. I mean, knew that, but… You used to fight all the time for what you thought right."

"Haven't changed. This just isn't right." Cloud said.

"We can't do it without you." She glanced at Zack, but her eyes remained fixed on Cloud. Her whole posture was pleading.

Cloud shook his head. "Then you can't do it, and, my opinion? That's a good thing." He turned to Zack. "Ready to go?"

"Hells yeah," Zack replied. Cloud didn't wait for him before stalking away.

Zack wanted to say something, anything, before he followed. He'd had a good day until this. He took Tifa's hand. "Please, please, please, don't do this. It smells of double-dealing and set ups and Shinra, and you're far too nice a person for me to want you to get caught up in that. Please," he went on. "Find something else."

Then Zack followed Cloud off the porch and out into the square, where normal people did normal things, and the fate of the world wasn't even a concern.

It was nice there.

.o0|0o.

Tseng gave his jacket one tug before leaving his office. He knew what this summons was about.

As he rode the elevator up to the presidents' floor, he mentally reviewed the file and he reviewed his presentation, and he breathed steadily and evenly until all nerves were erased from his body.

He was Tseng. Head of the Turks.

An exiled, outcast, half-Wutaian bastard who'd survived on his wits and his nerves to become one of the most powerful people on the planet.

It didn't make him feel safe.

It did, however, remind him that he had survived worse than what he was facing now.

He didn't knock – he had been summoned, and he was Tseng.

He walked calmly, silently, to stand in front of the over-large desk. He faced the president in his massive chair, and Heidegger positioned at Shinra's right shoulder. Tseng clasped his hands, one on top of the other, resting low and relaxed – his version of military parade rest. "Mr President. General."

"Report, Tseng!" the general barked. "When will those scum attack?"

Scum? Tseng thought. Rather ironic considering the source.

His voice was flat, unaffected, when he replied. "We've changed our focus, so there will be a slight delay."

"Changed your…!" Heidegger sputtered. "I thought you had a group ready to go?"

Tseng ignored him. "We have a lead to a cell of Fuhito's original Avalanche," he said to the president.

President Shinra obliged him by frowning, leaning forward, and clenching his jaw. All signs that his emotions were going to override his common sense. "The same ones who…?"

Tseng allowed himself a small nod. "Who conspired with your son. Yes."

The president growled. Behind him, unseen, Heidegger sneered. It could've been at the mention of Avalanche, or it could've been a result of Rufus coming up in the conversation. It was no secret (to everyone other than the president) that Heidegger thought Rufus should've been executed as a traitor.

It could also, and most likely was, Heidegger's true feeling for Roman Shinra coming through. If President Shinra had a heart attack right now, the general would sit in the chair and change the passcodes before he called for medical aid.

None of those thoughts were reflected in Tseng's tone. "This group will more completely fulfill your goals," he said. "They are already acclimatized to using violence against Shinra with little regard for civilian casualties. They won't need to be coaxed or trained in how to make or plant bombs. As well, their connection to the Wutai insurgents is real, and widely-known."

"I thought the other group was also Avalanche," the general demanded.

Tseng spared him a glance. "The first group we approached did indeed call themselves Avalanche. However, closer investigation revealed they had no idea of the group's original purpose. They bought the propaganda, you might say."

"Are they idiots?" Shinra asked.

"You might call them so." And would, no matter what Tseng said.

"Are they a threat?" Heidegger asked, which was a relatively smart question. "If they've come so far…"

"I doubt they have the stomach to continue without someone from the outside pushing them to it." Which the Turks would no longer be doing, thanks to Fair's odd friendship with Cloud Strife and Strife's connection to the bar's owner. If Lockhart and Wallace followed through at Reactor 1, then Tseng would have to round up their known associates: Strife to Fair to Aerith Gainsborough.

Unacceptable.

"Is this new group – the real Avalanche one. Is it the same group that turned Rufus against me?"

It was a good thing for Heidegger that President Shinra couldn't see his face. If Roman saw the look of disgust at the mention of his son, general or not, he would've ordered Tseng to toss Heidegger out the window.

Tseng didn't have the luxury of not being seen. He did, however, have years of training – both in keeping his expression neutral and in lying.

"We believe it contains some of the original members, yes."

Roman Shinra's eyes narrowed, and he practically chewed through his cigar. "I approve the change of target.

"But, Mr President," Heidegger protested. "The delay…"

Shinra glared at Tseng. A silent order for an answer he liked.

"A week. Perhaps two." Probably longer, but not by much.

"Is that a guarantee?" Heidegger sneered. Tseng gave an internal sigh of relief. It was the opening he needed to prepare the president for disappointment.

Tseng kept his gaze on the president. "They could blow themselves up tomorrow or kill each other in one of their rather frequent battles for leadership." Not unlike the Shinra executive. "However, we know where they are now. We will work our way through them, until we find one that can be steered where you want them."

Shinra's smile was one of anticipation as he imagined a future where he got everything he wanted.

There was no doubt in that smile because, Roman Shinra had cause to be confident. After all, so far in his life, Roman Shinra _had_ gotten all the things he'd ever wanted.

It made Tseng's stomach curdle a little, knowing he was partly responsible for that.

When he was dismissed without further argument or complaint, Tseng knew he had done well. Thanks to him, Veld, Shotgun, Katana and the rest wouldn't be hunted for a while longer.

He'd survived one more walk on the tightrope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cloud is pretty harsh on Barret in this, and yes, it's my bias is coming through. Sure, Marlene's adopted but Barret took that responsibility on. He didn't go out and find a stable family back in Corel to look after her. He brought her with him to Midgar.
> 
> And then dumped her on Tifa. Essentially through two games and a movie.
> 
> (Maybe I'm not as copacetic with my ex's (dismal) parenting as I thought.)


	13. I Am a Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aerith is back, and she has _plans_. Of course, so do other people, but theirs are probably not as much fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: A female character is verbally harassed by a man.

Cloud was out of town on a delivery run when Zack's drake skin harness was ready for pick up, so he stayed the night in Sector 5. Well, the afternoon and _then_ the night.

Aerith laid in her bed, knowing that Zack was _right there_ – just on the other side of the thin wall.

After dinner, he'd developed a headache he couldn't shake, so all they'd managed was a little hand-holding, a little flirting, the occasional peck on the lips. It had been worrying, but mostly frustrating – wonderfully, deliciously frustrating – and it had made Elmyra happy, but still….

However, that was last night. This was today, and today Aerith had _plans._

Wymer had a job that needed a SOLDIER, so they'd go to Sector 7 on the first run of Chocobo Sam's through the wall. They _would_ go monster hunting, but later. First, Aerith fully intended on talking Zack into going to his place for an hour or two beforehand. And maybe in the middle.

Definitely again before the end of the day.

Cloud was scheduled to be back tomorrow, so they needed to take advantage of the empty apartment while they had it.

With a wide, wide smile of anticipation, Aerith jumped out of bed. She dressed in the new equipment she'd bought and put in the earrings Zack had given her that boosted her magic and just plain looked good. She grabbed her new PHS and her new staff with its extra materia slots, and she felt like a warrior woman.

Aerith smiled brightly at her foster mother during breakfast, while under the table her foot climbed Zack's leg. He squirmed and blushed and gave Elmyra so many helplessly guilty looks that she eventually gave Aerith a light whack on the back of the head and told her to behave.

Aerith giggled instead.

They walked to the village and Zack held out his hand for her to take. When she took it, he lifted her hand to his lips. "Shall we, m'lady?"

"We shall, noble sir." She gave a little dip of a curtsey.

She wore a light brown dress Elmyra had decorated with pink ribbons, and her little red jacket with oodles of buckles, and she thought she looked fabulous.

Zack, on the other hand, wore brownish pants, and a purple and pink striped button-up shirt with little green frogs dancing all over it. He also wore his blue drake skin sword harness, and everything clashed horribly with everything else, but he looked so happy in his bright colours that all Aerith could do was smile.

"So, we'll go to Sector 7, we'll meet up with Tifa and take care of that thing Wymer was talking about. And then we'll head on over to Little Da-chao. We'll have sushi and you can look at the shops. Maybe you find a new market for your flowers. Wutaian's like flowers."

"I'm looking forward to it," she said. "But _after_ we go to your place."

"Why do we–"

She gave Zack a pointed look. He stopped, blushed. "Ahh, yeah," he said, rubbing his head. "Yeah. Before or after–"

"Both," she said firmly.

He laughed softly, still blushing. "Gonna have to buy more condoms soon. I'm down to about three."

It didn't _feel_ like they'd gone through that many… "We should stop at the pharmacists today then," she said lightly.

This time his laugh was loud and full and lovely. "You are going to be the death of me, aren't you."

She smiled back. "Only little deaths."

They spent the next bit of time kissing, which was very enjoyable, but didn't get them any closer to Zack's bedroom, so Aerith reluctantly broke it off and led him towards Chocobo Sam's stand.

They got stopped on the way, of course. People saying hi and wishing them a good morning. Doctor Kellin gave them a list of ingredients he needed for his medicines. He couldn't pay much, but since he often treated people in Sector 5 for free, Zack wouldn't charge him anything anyway.

One thing Aerith had learned was that her initial idea that SOLDIERs loved fighting was entirely correct in Zack's case. He preferred if he was fighting to protect people, keeping them safe, but he was definitely happiest when he was in battle.

Aerith tipped her head, rethought: Zack was _second_ happiest when he was fighting.

It had better be second happiest when he was fighting…

They finally made it to the chocobo stand. There were two other people there already, probably heading to Wall Market for work. A quick check of the schedule showed they hadn't (quite) missed the early run to Sector 7.

Zack flashed her a relieved look out of his bright, bright eyes, and Aerith wondered when she'd stopped thinking of them as unnatural. They weren't 'SOLDIER eyes'. They weren't 'mako eyes'. They were just Zack's eyes, and they were beautiful.

She would've said something, but he reached into the sky and caught a long, dark feather.

"Huh." He looked up to the plate, searching.

"What?"

"Nothing." He shuffled a little, embarrassed. "Well…." He gusted out a sigh. "It's silly."

Aerith gave him a poke in the ribs. "It might not be."

It took a few more minutes during which Aerith discreetly shifted them away from the other people waiting.

"You know Angeal had wings," Zack said softly. "I told you about that." Aerith nodded. Zack held up the feather. "I used to see them around sometimes, usually when he was in the area, after he, y'know, deserted." He twirled the feather. "I've been seeing black feathers around, and I was just…" Another sigh. "Wondering."

Aerith looked at the feather. It _kinda_ looked like the Angeal griffon feathers before it got so sick. But not much. For one thing, "I thought Angeal's feathers were white?"

"Yeah, but…" Zack drooped. "Like I said, silly."

She stepped closer, wrapping one of his arms around her shoulder, letting her body offer silent comfort. "It's not silly to miss someone you cared for."

"Yeah, I mean. I miss him, yeah. But…" He looked around the narrow road. There were still only the two other people in the area. "Genesis and Sephiroth had wings, too. So that's all the Firsts except, y'know, me. What if…."

He fell silent, staring down at the feather. Then he pulled her in against his chest, she could feel his chin against her hair. "They all deteriorated or went crazy. Or both. What if…."

"Are you afraid that you're going to do the same?" She asked, already knowing his answer.

"Always," he whispered. "All the time now, since Hojo. Fuck, Aerith. He injected so much shit into me, I don't know if I even qualify as human."

She punched him.

Lightly, but enough to get his attention.

"Human is a state of mind," she said, staring up into his vivid eyes that reflected so much. "It means you feel, you think, you worry. It means you _care_. Do you think I'm not human because I'm partly Cetra?"

Zack's eyes widened in horror, and he hastily assured her that of _course_ she was human!

She nodded, accepting his reassurances. "Then it's the same for you."

The wagon finally arrived, and they stopped talking about it, but Aerith thought that the conversation wasn't finished. Sure enough, once they were by themselves in the back – the only ones going to Sector 7 – Zack once again buried his face in her hair. "What if I grow wings?" he whispered.

"Then they'll be marvelous, and I'll love them as much as I love the rest of you."

The guards on the Sector 7 gate didn't look at them suspiciously anymore. They'd been through enough times that even the burly corporal deigned to nod in recognition.

They were close to her goal – Zack's empty apartment – and the anticipation was building. It was a physical thing – which made sense because sex _was_ physical.

It was also more. Like bubbles in her heart, and flutters in her veins… When he picked her up and swung her for no reason in the middle of a space that was hardly big enough for it, Aerith knew Zack was feeling the same thing.

In the end, she convinced Zack to spend a full hour with her in his room. (Mostly by practicing oral techniques, which also kept their condom use to one. Bonus!)

It was a lovely way to spend an hour. He tasted so good, and he seemed to like how she tasted just as much.

She'd nearly never had this.

Zack had nearly died on a lonely clifftop not that far from here. It had been luck that Cloud had been close. Luck, not the Planet, that had given Zack back to her.

She refused to forget that – forget that Zack could be lost to her, so she tried to imprint everything into her memories: the sounds he made, the way his fingers felt on her skin, the look of his clenching muscles when she touched him just so. His mouth, his eyes, his hands, his scent… All of it was precious to her.

Afterwards, he held her close in his small room with its tiny window opening onto nothing. It smelled like them – their sweat, their sex. Aerith inhaled it and smiled.

"I wish I could go meet your interesting bookstore owner," he mumbled.

"And thank them?" she teased.

"Oh yeah." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"I'll give them an extra flower next time I go up," Aerith promised.

Cloud had been up with her once, but not Zack. He thought, and Cloud agreed, that it was too risky for him to take the train to the upper plate with all their ID checks. It was one thing, they'd said, for the Turks to know he hadn't been eliminated as planned. Quite another for a faceless security grunt to write the name down in a report and pass it up the line.

 _"Maybe nobody reads it,"_ Zack had said _. "But maybe somebody does – somebody who recognizes my name. Then a whole buncha layers of cover-your-ass military bureaucracy are going to try to reverse my survival before whichever executive gave the order finds out._ "

It made her sad, but she understood.

They took separate showers ("Or else we'll never get out here, babe.") and got kitted up in their battle gear. (It made her giggle to call it that). Then out the door.

"We'll meet Tifa at the gate to Scrap Boulevard," Zack reminded her.

Aerith didn't need reminding. The only time she'd seen Cloud's childhood friend had been when she burst into the apartment that one time. Right after she'd found out he was alive.

That hadn't been a _great_ first meeting. However, if she was going to be friend with Cloud – and she fully intended to be – then she would learn to be friends with Cloud's friends. And that meant meeting them when they weren't shouting horrible things at her boyfriend.

And honestly, Aerith was looking forward to meeting Tifa Lockhart properly. When he talked of his life, Cloud rarely mentioned anybody by name, but he'd mentioned her.

And Zack had praised her fighting skills, so of course Aerith was curious.

"Were there any female SOLDIERs?" she asked as they swung hands.

Zack frowned. "Actually no. Although, I think there were some female candidates. I wonder what happened to them."

"Maybe they were recruited into something else," she suggested. Although it was more likely Professor Hojo had taken them away to be test subjects. He'd always been fascinated by a woman's ability to give birth. She shivered reflexively. Thankful once again, for her mother who'd sacrificed herself so that they could both escape from Shinra.

"Maybe," he agreed doubtfully. "Doubt I'll find out now, though. Why you asking?"

She shrugged. "Would Tifa had made it into SOLDIER?"

Zack frowned, thinking about it. "She's probably pretty close to a SOLDIER Second in terms of her physical power, but then so are you with your materia."

"Really?" Aerith brightened. "A SOLDIER Second?"

Zack nodded. "I mean, yeah. The thing that made SOLDIERs special – aside from our endless hours of training – was that we were good with both physical and magical attacks. We could do a lot of either and they were _powerful._ "

"And your healing," she reminded him softly. The healing that had kept him from dying anytime in the last five years.

"And the healing," he agreed equally quiet.

They passed by a pharmacist's shop on their way to the Neighbourhood Watch office, so Aerith pushed Zack inside to get more condoms. People nearby gave her disgusted looks when she yelled at him to get flavoured ones, but Aerith just smiled at them sweetly. She wasn't going to apologize for wanting to have sex with her boyfriend.

When he came out, he was only slightly red in the face. "I got some healing potions, too," he said, running a hand through his hair.

She looked up at him very seriously. "I'm not ready for blood play, Zack."

She laughed at his look of absolute horror, and she kept laughing as she led him away by the hand.

Already the most populous sector under the plate (according to Cloud) Sector 7 was still growing. Specifically, it was growing out into what they called Scrap Boulevard. Slowly, steadily, the scrap was being moved or taken away. That meant open, mostly flat land, where houses and shops could be built.

It was desperately needed, Wymer told them, because the sector was always short of housing, especially since the partial collapse of the Sector 6 plate a few months ago. Lots of families had been pushed to the ground floor. Upper plate families expected space, he'd said, but they could only put in three small bedrooms.

He said this to explain that they were trying to cut down on the amount of space needed for the new buildings. Aerith wondered what Wymer would think if he ever visited her home sector. Families felt blessed if they had a bedroom that didn't also serve as the living room or the kitchen.

However, she wasn't here to compare living standards. The construction company had offered a nice reward if they could get rid of the newest monster that was endangering the work site.

"What is it again?" Zack asked.

"They called it a gargoyle," Wymer answered. "I took a look at it, and I've never seen anything like it."

Zack let out a breath. "Guess we'll use a materia slot for Sense then."

"Assess," Aerith said.

"Assess," he corrected. "That ought to make Chadley happy. Right Chadley?"

"I would be most grateful for any new data you can provide to me," the boy responded. He had the oddly stilted manners of someone who'd learned Common as a second language, or from old books or something.

"Cool," Zack bounced. Stopped. "Uhh, do we have that one, or is it on Cloud?" A quick search of their equipment showed that neither of them had the Assess materia, but Chadley had an extra one he sold them at cost.

Zack wouldn't let Aerith swap out any of her materia – "You got all the important stuff" – and Aerith agreed with a hint of guilt.

She enjoyed monster hunting. She specifically enjoyed monster hunting with Zack, but she sometimes felt guilting killing something that was just another creature of the planet, doing its best to survive. She didn't feel that way over one of Shinra's escaped experiments, but they wouldn't know for sure that's what they were facing until they were actually facing it.

She didn't want guilt to make her hesitate, not when other people were risking their lives – not when _Zack's_ life was at stake. That meant not knowing for sure. Zack would assess, and he'd tell her the weaknesses and resistances and she would do what she needed to and feel a little less like a monster herself.

They walked up the short path to the gate – maybe a little longer than it had been a month ago. There were people on it – workers carrying bags of cement or shifting pallets of pipes. The construction crew preparing for when they could go back in.

At the far end, backed against the fence, was the dark-haired woman Aerith had seen so briefly a month ago. A heavy-set man stood in front of her, leaning in.

"Aw, c'mon, Teef! I know you like a good time." The tone made Aerith's nose wrinkle.

"Art, told you I'm not interested." Tifa Lockhart had her arms crossed in front of her. It may have been defensive, but it also emphasized her large bust. It was at Tifa's bust that Art was staring, and not the woman's very unhappy face.

"Well then, tell me, what's a girl like you do for fun?" he leaned closer.

"Kill monsters!" Aerith said brightly _and_ _loudly_. Both Art and Tifa turned to stare at her.

"What the…?" Art muttered.

Aerith tipped her head and stared at the man. "Which means she's being very kind to you when you're not being very nice to _her_."

"Who the hells are you?" Art demanded.

"I'm a monster fighter, too. Not quite as impressive as Tifa or Zack." Aerith gestured to Zack, who'd moved to stand on her right. "This is Zack Fair. My lover." She grinned. "Former SOLDIER First Class. You may have heard of him."

"Hiya," Zack waved. The handle of his big sword stood up higher than his hair. "Tifa can almost kick _my_ ass. It's awesome."

Tifa blushed.

They had an audience now. More of the crew and some people who'd followed Zack in the hopes of watching him fight.

Since they had an audience, Aerith spoke even louder. "And even if she couldn't squish your head flat as a board – which she apparently can - it's really not nice to harass someone who's turned you down. Why are you harassing her, Art?" she asked with maximum innocence and confusion.

Art looked around. "I'm not harassing anyone."

Aerith's eyebrows went up. "Really?" She turned to look at Tifa. "Tifa. Did you turn him down?"

Tifa nodded, dark hair swaying. "Yah, did. Sorry, Art, but I don't date customers. Full stop."

Aerith put her finger to her lips in a pose she called Pondering. "I guess you _could_ stop drinking – she might reconsider then. But you've been rather rude, so maybe not."

Art scowled. "Bitch."

"Woah, woah." Zack stepped forward. "You're embarrassed and angry, I get that. But don't swear at my girlfriend."

Aerith smiled up at him "Thank you, Zack."

He smiled back, glowing eyes warm and sincere. "Anything for you." There was a soft 'awww' from the crowd.

Art killed the moment by pushing between them hard enough to knock Zack back a little and Aerith a lot. The ground wasn't completely even, and she got her feet tangled in her staff. Before she could fall over and ruin her image as a bad-ass monster hunter, Tifa caught her and held her upright.

"That was… _wonderful!_ " Tifa said. Her arms around Aerith felt almost like a hug.

Aerith gave her a grin before pulling away. "Next time, customer or not, you should probably punch him in the nose." She brushed some microscopic dirt from her skirt. When she looked up, Tifa was staring at her like she was a hero.

"Tifa," Zack said. Then repeated, a little louder.

Tifa jumped a little, blushed a little, and turned to Zack. "Yes?" Her voice was a little shaky.

Maybe the encounter with Awful Art had upset her up worse that Aerith had thought?

But surely, Aerith thought, she had to be used to men like that propositioning her. She worked in a bar, wore short skorts over _incredible_ legs, and had a bosom that Aerith could only dream of. So why was she so shaken?

So far, Tifa Lockhart reminded Aerith more of an awkward kid than a kick-ass fighter (but she could also be a _little_ biased. After all, the woman _did_ attack Zack for being Shinra.)

Aerith gave the fighter another bright smile, shifting closer to Zack in case Tifa attacked him again. She told herself to reserve judgment until after this fight was done. "Shall we go kill monsters now?"

Tifa gave another jump. "Umm."

Aerith turned to Zack, a question in her eyes. Zack, the fink, gave her a lazy smile that said he was enjoying something at her expense.

She smiled back the same way. She'd get it from him eventually.

The layout of Scrap Boulevard was different from the last time Aerith had fought here with Zack and Cloud, but it was easy to find the new monster. They just followed the trail of dead wererats and gorgers. They hadn't been eaten, just ripped apart and scattered.

They'd been killed and just left to dissolve.

"Why isn't the creature eating the wererats?" Aerith asked as they watched one sparkle into nothing. Nobody had an answer.

The path went up. High enough for a breeze to give them respite from the smell of garbage and rats that was thick in the scrapyard. There was a curve ahead, and from the other side she could hear screeching, hissing, and clicking, and finally the dull thump of a body hitting the ground.

"Think that's it?" Tifa asked.

"I'd say so," Zack answered, taking the sword from his back. "Doesn't sound like what we usually fight back here."

Aerith hummed in agreement. She held her staff in front of her and cast Barrier on each of them. "Ready?"

Zack grinned. "Let me check it out, draw its attention. You two follow when its back is turned," he said. "Tifa, me and you will flank it for physical attacks. Aerith's got Ice for the magic."

"That's the plan?" Tifa asked.

"Well, gonna see if I can sneak in an Assess first, but they're usually weak to cold." He crouched as they drew nearer to where the sound was coming from. Aerith and Tifa followed suit.

The problem with Assess, as Aerith had pointed out more than once, was that it took a few seconds to work. Which was okay when the thing they were facing was slow and half-blind, but not so good against practically everything else they encountered. It also needed a completely unobscured view of the monster, so when crouching and hiding didn't get Zack the information he needed, he stood up and walked into the unknown creature's territory.

Aerith's heart sped up. She _knew_ Zack was tough, and Zack was quick, but knowing that didn't stop the bubble of worry filling her gut.

Whatever it was screeched. Its footsteps sounded heavy against the gravel and dirt, but they didn't come closer.

It seemed like forever before he made a sound.

"Ice! It's weak against ice!"

Both she and Tifa took that to mean it was okay for them to enter the fighting area. They rounded the corner together. "What the hells is _that_?" Tifa said, and Aerith had to agree.

The thing was big, as tall as Zack at the shoulder. It would've reminded Aerith of a turtle except it had six legs and a long, long neck. It also had a strong looking horn on the front of its beaky face, and there was something weird with its eyes.

It finally saw Zack and charged, making a screechy roar. It should have been slow and clumsy, but of course, it wasn't. Zack rolled out of the way.

Tifa rushed forward, moving even faster. She jumped, feet out in a diving kick that practically took out one of its legs. Aerith built her arcane ward around herself. It would let her do the most damage possible.

As it started to turn, Zack swept in, sword swirling around him like a deadly ballerina, and brought its attention back to him.

Aerith had to warm up her staff and her materia first, but as soon as she could, she cast Blizzara. The noise it made as the ice shards dug into it was deafening.

The second cast made it even angrier. Even Zack's thrust couldn't stop it from turning on her.

Aerith let the staff's in-built magic fly at the monster even as she prepared to hop out the way of its charge.

It didn't charge.

Instead it opened its mouth, and with a high-pitched wheeze, blew out a breath of acrid black smoke.

Tifa dived one way, and Aerith ran the other, but there really wasn't anyplace to go to get away from the noxious stuff. They were in a gully, the sides of it were tall, keeping out any kind of cleansing wind.

Tifa coughed and coughed again.

Aerith saw Zack fly up in the air before coming down like a missile, sword pointed straight down. It tore into the creature. He didn't stop there but ran up its back to swing at its neck.

Its head swiveled to attack him, so Aerith ignored the black fumes to cast more Ice on the thing, right where Zack's buster sword should land.

It was perfect. The Blizzara had enough time to make the flesh a little brittle, and that's all the big buster sword needed to shatter a whole section of it. The head toppled to the side.

Cut off from its brain, the body just dropped to the ground. It was already over.

Tifa coughed. The breath she tried to draw sounded harsh, like it had nowhere to go.

Aerith shifted her focus to the Cleanse materia she had equipped. She didn't have much practice with it because neither Zack nor Cloud let themselves get hit with poison very often. However, she used it often enough to know what Esuna should feel like. She cast it on Cloud's friend and immediately heard Tifa draw a true breath.

Aerith rushed over to the fighter. "Come on." She helped Tifa to her feet so they could move someplace out of the poisoned air. It was dissipating, but it wasn't gone and Aerith had no desire to experience it for herself.

The path that had brought them here sloped upward, so that's the direction Aerith chose. she helped Tifa to one of the larger rocks that lined the path. It was a little taller than a chair, but it would have to do. "You okay?"

Tifa nodded. She closed her eyes and the sparkle of a healing spell surrounded her, except it was gold, not green.

"What was that?" Aerith asked.

"Chakra," Tifa said. A healthier colour was returning to her skin. "It's a healing materia, but it also cures poison."

"It's a cool one," Zack said from behind her. Aerith jumped a little. For such a big man, he could move awfully quiet. "Here, found this." He handed over a pin in the shape of a feather. There were _four_ slots for materia! Aerith tried to figure out how to attach it since there wasn't actually a pointy bit for sticking through cloth.

"What _was_ that thing?" Tifa said.

"According to the reading, it was a Bag-na-drana," He tapped on the gold Assess materia to pull up the information. "Native to the Corel Mountains."

" _Corel_?" Tifa repeated. "What was it doing here?"

"From the surgery scars, I'd say it was getting experimented on," he answered grimly. "The question is, how did it get down here? Hojo's labs are on the 67th floor."

"They say there's a secret underground lab." Tifa said. "They said that about Nibelheim, too."

"There _was_ a secret lab at Nibelheim," Zack pointed out. His voice and eyes filled with bleak memories. Aerith stepped closer, while Tifa looked at him in apology.

"Do you think there's actually a lab under the sector?" Aerith asked.

She saw Zack shake off the past, putting it aside for some other time. "It's possible. I mean, Hojo talked about manipulating summons, and those things take some room to cast."

"A lab large enough for a summon would be massive," Tifa said. "It would undermine Midgar's stability."

Zack shrugged. "Hojo wouldn't care. And from what I remember of the board, neither would any of them as long as they survived the collapse."

"You can think that, and not want to destroy them?" Tifa said accusingly.

He laughed, small and bitter. "Oh, I want them dead. I just don't want to die to accomplish it."

"Some things are worth dying for." She glared at him.

"And some things are worth living for." He reached for Aerith's hand and she grabbed it, holding on tight. She rested her head against his arm, whole and warm. She felt his chin rest in her hair as he breathed her in deep.

They were both alive.

"A little selfish, don't you think?" Tifa said.

Aerith swung to face her. "You have a right to your feelings," she said firmly. "But you do not have the right to force them onto someone else. You have no right to demand more of someone who survived what Zack… What Zack endured. Four years…. Under Professor Hojo… They left him there."

She was gulping for breath when strong arms surrounded her, holding her close. There was a soft breath in her ears, calming her anger, soothing her fears. Reminding her that he _was_ here. He was alive.

She grabbed his arms, pulling him into her. Feeling the rhythm of his chest moving in and out.

Alive. Alive. Alive, she reminded herself. They were both alive.

She didn't pay attention to how long they stood there. It could've been minutes. It could've been hours.

"I'm sorry."

The voice was subdued.

"Shinra cost me everything," Tifa went on. "A whole village, burned to the ground, and they didn't care."

Behind her, Zack sighed. "We should mosey," he said. "There's the reward to collect, and showers to take." It didn't lighten the mood much, but it did get them moving.

It wasn't enough to hold Zack's hand this time. Aerith pulled his arm over her shoulders and wrapped her arm around his waist, lifting his shirt up until she could feel skin, feel its reassuring warmth.

He didn't call her on it or make fun. Instead he kissed her hair and rubbed her shoulder.

It was a silent trio that walked out of Scrap Boulevard, with none of the joy or satisfaction Aerith usually felt when fighting with Cloud. Aerith thought it would be another long while before they did a job with Tifa Lockhart. She'd been helpful today, but not so much as to make it worth the painful aftermath.

"I _am_ sorry," Tifa repeated when the gate came into view. "Cloud says I have tunnel vision, where Shinra's concerned. Don't see anyone's pain but my own." She took a short, sharp breath. "He's probably right."

It was a decent apology. Aerith would maybe reconsider the hunting ban, but not this week.

They walked out the gate to a curious crowd asking, "Did you find it?" "Are you hurt" and "Is it dead?" They ignored the questions, because standing still and dark in the undulating crowd, was a Turk – no, two Turks. Not trying to blend in, not trying to sneak.

"Cissnei." Zack said to the smaller, red-haired one.

"Hello Zack. Aerith," the small Turk said to each of them. "And you're Tifa Lockhart."

Zack crossed his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Who is that?" Tifa whispered to Aerith.

"I'm afraid I need you to come with me," the Turk said.

"Bad news," Aerith whispered back.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aerith's reference to giving Zack "little deaths" is deliberate. _La petite mort_ is a phrase indicating post-orgasmic lassitude or even loss of consciousness. 
> 
> Aerith might be aiming for the latter as an experiment. (I'm not exactly sure what all was covered in her 'very interesting' book). Whatever they're trying, they're both enjoying it.


	14. Just a Casual Visit from an Old Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Turks have much to share with Zack, and much to offer as well. Plus, there've been some interesting developments at Shinra that will have a big effect on our young heroes' lives.

_"I'm afraid I need you to come with me."_

The words were polite, but they came from a Turk. A tiny Turk, but a well-trained and experienced one.

"How about 'no'." It was the only answer he could give.

Zack planted his feet and waited for Round 2. His stance was loose, ready to shift into battle mode. He'd never fought Shuriken, but he'd sparred with Tseng a time or two. It would probably be an even match. Too bad about all the newly built buildings next to them.

The crowd started to undulate. Some people pushed closer. Some backed away. Those people may not have recognized the woman in the blue suit as a Turk, but on some level, they knew she was dangerous.

Cissnei didn't attack. Her hands remained folded in front of her in a deliberate show of meekness. "We just have some questions about your whereabouts last night."

Aerith spoke up, puzzled. "You should know where he was last night."

"We can use that report, certainly," Cissnei staying meek in a way Zack distrusted. "Of course, then we'd have to explain to the whole board why the Turks were watching Ms Gainsborough's house."

Assholes, Zack thought.

He could assume it was a bluff – Tseng had been protecting Aerith for a long time and Zack didn't think the reasons for that choice had disappeared. However, he couldn't trust it. As soon as it became more convenient (or safer) for Tseng to turn Aerith over to Shinra, the Turk would do it. He'd already proven that.

What to do? He absolutely did not want to go anywhere near Shinra Tower.

Zack gave Cissnei a wide smile. "Well, how about you ask me your questions here? I got nothing to hide about where I was last night." He made his smile a little rueful. "As long as you don't tell Mrs Gainsborough where I was _this morning_ …."

Aerith leaned forward. "We were having sex," she said plainly. "I enjoyed it very much."

There were coughs and shuffling, and a lot of red faces. The baby Turk, with the asymmetrical blonde hair was as red as Aerith's jacket. Zack could only hope his dusky skin hid his own blush. Cissnei, however, was a calm and still as ever. "This is an _official_ enquiry, Zack."

"And why should _I_ care, Cissnei?" He mimicked her tone exactly.

"You're still a SOLDIER," the blonde one said. "Still a member of –"

From the corner of his eye, he saw Cissnei wince, but Zack focused on the blonde. "Don't."

As one, the gathered crowd took a step back. He took a breath and pushed the fury down. "You don't want to finish that sentence."

"But she has a point, Zack," Cissnei said calmly. "As a citizen of –"

Again, Zack interrupted. "A citizen of what, exactly? The empire? Shinra's a company not a country. And even if it _were_ a country, you have to be _alive_ to be a citizen, and –" He used air quotes "– _officially_ , I'm dead."

"You know that's not true."

"Really?" He put his hands on his hips and used lots of derision. "I haven't seen anything on any of Shinra's huge fucking bulletin boards announcing my miraculous return."

The blonde Turk looked between him and Cissnei anxiously. He might've felt some sympathy for her, getting caught between rock and an immovable object, but she'd joined the Turks, so his sympathy was small.

To her credit, Cissnei didn't flinch. She didn't break eye contact as she slowly and deliberately took the PHS from her pocket. She didn't seem to dial a number, but in a moment she spoke. "Tell Reno he lost the bet. Not that he'll be surprised."

So, they hadn't expected him to just go along. What would be their next tactic, Zack wondered?

"Who is she talking to?" Tifa asked in a too-loud whisper.

"Her boss," Aerith answered.

There was a soft irritating hum that kept him from hearing the voice of the person on the other side of the call, but it had to be Tseng.

Zack kept quiet, arms crossed, and let the silence play out. For once, Zack wished he was wearing his SOLDIER First uniform again. There was just something about the black outfit that screamed 'intimidation'.

Cissnei listened and made little noises that could mean anything.

Finally, she nodded. "Understood, sir." She clicked the PHS shut.

Tifa stepped forward. She was practically vibrating from the tension. "There's places down here to talk, if it's that important."

Cissnei's gold-brown eyes flicked to the fighter. "Like your bar, Seventh Heaven?" she said. "I'm sure it has lots of secret areas in which to hold private conversations."

"Well, shit," Zack said lightly, even as his mind raced. "Guess you know about the Avalanche hide-out in the basement."

He heard Tifa's hissed breath but ignored it. The Turks already knew about their Avalanche connection because they'd given Barret that reactor map.

"It predates the current owners," Cissnei said calmly. "Perhaps Ms Lockhart was unaware."

It was to be an exchange of information then.

"I won't go above the plate," he said. "Not to Shinra HQ, not to the Goblin Bar. Not even to the train tracks."

"Lunchroom at Beginner's Hall?" Tifa suggested.

Zack nodded. "Sure. Have to collect our reward anyway."

"That is acceptable," Cissnei agreed. Zack let her lead and wasn't surprised when she walked directly to Wymer.

Wymer, poor man, looked distressed at the Turks and the crowd and everyone watching as if it were a stage play. "Uhh," he stammered.

"This hasn't got anything to do with you, Wymer. You can relax," Zack said. "We just need the reward."

"Uhh, sure," he said. He dug a heavy pouch out from a hidden pocket and handed it over. Zack took it and looked around the crowd. He recognized a young boy, maybe fourteen, that was often around the Beginner's Hall. "Mott," he called the boy over. "You know the wrap place on Bendover?" The boy nodded. Zack dug some coins out of the pouch. "Go get two horns fully loaded, and a horn with extra sauce no peppers. Tifa?" he called out. "What you want from Duardo's"

Tifa's eyes were huge and nervous. He gave her a reassuring wink. "Uh," she swallowed. "Tofu and mushroom."

Except for the Turks, everyone in earshot turned to look at the fighter.

"What?" she said defensively to everyone. "Dual horn meat tastes weird here."

Zack shrugged. The point of the exercise wasn't the food, after all, but showing the Turks that they were in Zack's home territory, not theirs. Tifa's weird choice worked just fine for that.

"Do you have new data for me, Zack?" Chadley asked from beside Wymer.

Aerith answered him. "Later, Chadley, okay?"

He fiddled with his monocle. "If the Turks are arresting you, I may never see you again. Your data will be lost."

"They're not arresting us," Tifa said. She turned to Cissnei "You're not arresting us, right?"

Cissnei nearly sighed. "We're not arresting anyone. And our request for information only applies to Zackary Fair."

"Oh, but I'm a witness to his whereabouts," Aerith said with a bounce.

"So am I," Tifa added, with a look in Zack's direction. "We talked on the PHS. To organize the thing. Today."

They hadn't talked, but whatever. Zack waved a hand at his two companions. "Always good to have witnesses." He smiled.

This time Cissnei did sigh.

Eventually they moved to a small room in the lower floor of the hall. It was where the neighbourhood watch was supposed to take statements from people before posting a job. What actually happened was people walked up to whoever was on the porch outside and started talking. Eventually the interview room had turned into a small lunchroom with a cooler and a heater, and a pretty picture on the wall instead of a window. It was the most secure room in the place and would fit the five of them easily.

Or, when it became necessary, it would even fit six.

Tifa made tea while the Turks checked the room for recording devices and set up their own anti-eavesdrop equipment. Aerith stood with her staff held in front of her watching them. Zack stood next to her, arms crossed, waiting once again. She was a line of warmth down his left side.

He was faking it pretty good, but Zack was nervous. This was his first serious encounter with Shinra forces since they'd tried to kill him on the cliff top. It felt like he was establishing himself somehow. Making them see him as Zack Fair, human being – no longer a SOLDIER, no longer a Shinra asset. No longer disposable.

The food came moments after Tseng walked through the door holding a thick attaché bag. The Turk waited until the food had been handed over and the change refused. He nodded at each of them in turn and said their names with a familiarity he shouldn't have.

Tifa frowned at the intimidating Turk who knew her name, but she still offered him tea.

The tea, Zack wasn't surprised to note, was set neutrally in the middle. Powdered cream and fake sugar in little bowls, and six cups.

Well, he supposed, they _were_ playing host.

Tseng watched them pull their wraps out of the bag. "Whenever you're ready," he said impassively.

Zack accepted the plate from Aerith and sat in a chair on their side of the table. He took a huge bite of his wrap – the biggest he could fit in his mouth – and chewed without shame.

Tseng watched without changing expressions. "Do we really need an audience, Zack?"

Aerith raised her hand. "Not an audience," she said before licking juice from her wrist.

"Witnesses," Tifa added. She was cutting her wrap in half.

"Just get on with it," Zack said once his mouth was empty enough. It wasn't _empty_ -empty, but Tseng didn't even wince.

"Very well," Tseng conceded. "However, know that if word of what we discuss here today gets out into the wider community, there will be repercussions. _Severe_ repercussions."

The two women looked somewhat cowed, so Zack just put his thumb up. "Got it." Tseng looked like he was going to say something more, before deciding not to bother. Zack would take that as a win.

Instead, the Turk opened his fancy pouch and took out a small device. It had a screen which was displaying the Shinra Electric Power Company logo, spinning and glowing like a star in the heavens.

It made Zack want to puke.

"Last night, at approximately 11:05 President Roman Shinra was murdered at his desk."

Zack stopped chewing. Aerith froze with her wrap halfway to her mouth. Tifa choked on hers.

Tseng touched the screen, and the logo disappeared, replaced with grainy black-and-white security footage with a time stamp in the corner from 11:02 PM. The footage flicked through the upper floor of the Shinra Tower, where only the highest of the high were allowed to tread. There were helmeted security guards standing in empty halls guarding mostly empty offices.

"Why does it jump like that?" Tifa asked.

"A picture is taken at two to six second intervals in a random pattern that is reset every few hours," Cissnei explained. "It makes it so the camera can't be looped."

Zack wasn't sure what that meant but it sounded secure.

"This is the relevant portion," Tseng said, bringing their attention back to the small screen. The image moved to the president's office and stayed. Roman Shinra, president of the largest company the world had ever seen, stood at the window, lording it over the world's largest city. A city he had built and rebuilt as if bored. A jump later he was seated at his desk smiling at whatever he saw in front of him.

Tseng paused the playback. "The assassin appears for the first time here. And when I say 'appears' that is exactly what I mean. We have searched the security footage for all levels and access points. There's nothing."

The image jumped to the landing pad outside the president's office. Zack put his wrap down and leaned closer to the screen. Off to one side, nearly completely off screen, a slim, long-coated figure touched down light as thistledown. Long hair billowed as if for a shampoo commercial.

"Holy shit," he breathed.

Tifa's breathing sped up. "Isn't that General Sephiroth?"

"Not a general," Zack replied, not looking away from the screen.

"What?" Tifa said. "Of course, he's a general. He's _the_ general."

Tseng paused the playback. "SOLDIERs have no military rank."

"But…" Tifa sounded stunned.

"Sephiroth was given control in Wutai because he'd _literally_ been built for war, like, since he was a foetus," Zack added.

Tseng looked sharply at Zack. "Where did you hear that?"

Zack rolled his eyes. "Hojo," he said. "Who else would brag about experimenting on his own unborn child."

"Sephiroth is _Hojo's_ child?" That time it was Aerith being shocked. Their wraps sat in front of them, forgotten.

"Can we return to the video?" Tseng asked. It wasn't really a question.

Zack asked Tseng to go back to landing pad when the figure first touched down. "I think we can all agree that that looks like Sephiroth," Zack said.

"But he's dead." Tifa pointed out.

"So am I," he reminded her. She didn't look reassured, but then he hadn't meant to be reassuring.

The angle shifted to inside the room, where Roman Shinra stood up. He looked angry, but not scared. Sephiroth paced in front of the desk once, twice, three times. He seemed to be talking, or maybe demanding, because the president laughed at him. Even with the poor quality and the bad angles, it was easy to see President Shinra dismissing Sephiroth as unimportant.

And then Sephiroth ran the president through with Masamune, pinning the old man to his overstuffed chair.

"Where'd the sword come from?" Zack asked.

"It just materialized," Tseng said. "However, it remained after Sephiroth left. It's being analyzed."

"Huh," Zack said. "Did he go after anyone else?" he asked to give himself time to think.

"No." Cissnei's voice was dispassionate. "But the remains of the Ancient, Jenova, were mutilated."

Aerith's soft, "Jenova's not an Ancient," was drowned by Tifa's louder demand. "What does that mean?"

"A portion of her torso was taken," Tseng answered. " We can't say if it was … the same person because the security cameras in the storage area shorted out."

"Did they now," Zack said. "And was that before or after President Shinra was skewered?"

"Before," Tseng answered. "Only moments before."

"So not enough time for someone to run from the labs on 67 to Shinra's office on 70?"

"Hojo's labs are now on the 65th and 66th floors," Tseng told them. "Fewer containment issues."

"Still, only someone with the speed of a SOLDIER could make it so fast," Elena said.

Zack flicked his gaze at her. "There are more enhanced people than you'd think," he said mildly. He looked back at Tseng. "You know it wasn't me who did this. I would've cut Hojo's balls off as my first choice, and if I bothered with the president, I'd've just dropped him off the roof. So why are you here?"

Tseng carefully folded his hands on the table in front of him. It was a tell, but it was a deliberate one. Tseng was unnerved, and he wanted Zack to know it.

"Four years ago, Sephiroth was classified as KIA, as you were. Hojo objected. Given the nature and concentration of the mako he fell into, no one took Hojo's objections seriously." Tseng leaned forward, "The president's office is biometrically scanned when a new presence is detected. The scans matched, not perfectly, but close enough."

Zack laughed. "You're telling me Sephiroth killed the president."

"Or someone with enough genetic similarities to register as Sephiroth." Tseng's pause was minute but telling: this theory wasn't his. "The board knows you were injected with many Project S cells during your captivity, and have concluded that anything else is… improbable."

"Tonberries are improbable, but _they_ exist," Zack muttered. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. He wanted to get up and move, but the room was too small for how he was feeling. Besides, he didn't want Tseng to see him unsettled.

"Genesis survived a drop into mako," he continued. "Hell, I was _immersed_ in a tank of the stuff for a year, and I'm still alive. Why's it so hard to believe Sephiroth survived?"

"Don't wanna admit their star creation is a crazy psychopath," Tifa sneered.

Aerith said, "Or it serves someone's purpose to deny the truth."

"Or the whole board is hiding their heads in the sand in the hopes he'll skip them and kill the next guy." Zack had met most of the board members. He doubted they'd changed.

"Or perhaps it's all of those things," Tseng said calmly.

"Hmm," Zack hummed agreement. "Still doesn't explain why you came down here to talk to me."

"Our investigation has to be thorough," Cissnei said.

Zack shook his head. "I could skin off twenty kilos and put on high heels, and I still wouldn't look or move like Sephiroth. You knew this wasn't me in a wig, so why are you here." He didn't look at anybody but Tseng, the number one Turk who wore his hair down as if he was foresworn but who still acted like Shinra's lapdog.

Tseng met him, look for look.

There was the barest hint of a twitch around the lips before Tseng looked away. He reopened the pouch and pulled out a folder.

"This folder contains everything required to reinstate you as SOLDIER," Tseng said. He laid light fingertips on the beige cardboard. "You'll be paid all back wages due you. There will be public announcements confirming your honourable service over the last five years." He flicked a quick glance at Cissnei. "Although, your fan club has reactivated, apparently, and is already spreading word of your return." Cissnei shifted once in her seat, and Zack wondered what in Tseng's statement had made her nervous.

Before he could ask, Tseng continued. "It will also include any promotions you might have missed." He looked at Zack. "It adds up to nearly fifty gil more per hour, and danger pay of five thousand gil for each mission."

Tseng's finely shaped fingers stroked the folder, pulling Zack's eyes down to it, to the promises it contained.

He could be SOLDIER again.

All his dreams… renewed and brought to life once more. He could restore the honour that Sephiroth and Genesis – and Angeal – had taken from it and him.

"You'd be the senior SOLDIER, Zack," Cissnei added.

He could lead them, guide them to a better path than rumours said they were on right now. Warriors without a war, soldiers without discipline.

"They would all report to you." Elena's voice out of place in the spell they were trying to weave.

"And I'd have to report to… Heidegger?" he asked.

"It's negotiable," Tseng said. "But as the director general of SOLDIER you would be unassailable."

Zack almost snorted – nobody was unassailable. He leaned forward to cover his reaction. "If I say yes, can I kill Hojo?" Beside him, Aerith breathed so very calmly. Her control was fantastic because she knew he meant it.

So did Tseng. His fingers stilled. "I'm afraid that's out of the question."

Zack leaned back. "Well then, whatever you've got in that folder isn't worth spit. Hojo will take whatever, and whoever, he wants, and the board will let him because _they know_ he's a fucking evil psychopath and none of them have ever stopped him before. That goes for you, Tseng. And you Cissnei. And you, baby Turk. You're all just fodder."

"But you have a duty–"

Zack (and maybe Aerith and Tifa, too) glared at Baby Turk. She shut up, pulling her shoulders up to just under her ears.

Zack picked up his cooling wrap. He held it as if thinking, before lowering it again. "What did they want me to do – as the new head of SOLDIER."

Zack took a bite. The dual horn meat didn't taste as good cold, but it was still sustenance. He chewed as Tseng looked at him, hand tap-tap-tapping on the folder. He swallowed, as the fingers stilled. He waited as Tseng put the folder back in the pouch.

"Rufus would like you to hunt down whoever, or whatever, killed the former president of Shinra."

It was an interesting turn of phrase: 'the former president' not 'his father'.

"Has his appointment already been confirmed?"

"It will be."

Zack nodded, accepting Tseng's statement.

Zack didn't know much about Rufus Shinra. He was the only legitimate child, but there were rumours… Lazard apparently had been an older half-brother. Rufus's mother was dead. If Zack remembered right, she'd died years ago when Rufus was still a kid – or maybe a teen? Young, anyways. He'd been made vice-president the same year Genesis mutinied, but sometime in the last five years, he'd pissed off his dad bad enough to be exiled to Junon.

"Doesn't he always wear white?"

Tseng blinked. "It is his preferred colour, yes."

"Hmm." Zack sat back thinking. If Sephiroth had returned – in whatever form – then Zack kind of would like to meet up with him again.

If Sephiroth had returned and was still crazy, then Zack was probably the only thing short of a meteor that would be able to stop him. So, he kind of had to meet up with him again.

"I won't go back to SOLDIER," he said. Tseng dipped his head in acknowledgement, unsurprised.

"But I _am_ for hire."

He hadn't meant to say it, but the pandemonium that broke out around him was strangely satisfying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ending kind of caught me by surprise, too. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. 
> 
> **Side note:** I was reminded that Zack's buster sword actually has a name: Galatine. Angeal called it that in Crisis Core, but of course, Zack never got a chance to tell Cloud its name, so it was never mentioned in OG or the Remake. I'll be going back and retconning this in. I will probably catch some other small errors as I go through everything, (because that's what happens when you go back.)


	15. We All Go Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud arrives back at Midgar and wants to know what the hells Zack was thinking. Before he can decide if it was brilliant or a Very Bad Idea, disaster strikes – and like just about everything else related to Shinra, it's not natural.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: If you spot any SPAG or plot errors, let me know. Constructive criticism helps me make this story, and my writing, better.

Cloud pushed through the doors of the bar, totally ignoring the prominent 'CLOSED' sign. Honestly, the bar was closed so often during work hours that it might as well have a flashing sign saying 'Hinky Shit Going Down Here'.

Aerith was just inside the door throwing darts (badly) at the dart board. Zack was at the bar, next to Marlene who was colouring on some paper. The SOLDIER wore his trademark smile, but it was his trademark for a reason. Cloud knew it covered up all sorts of darker emotions.

Right now, it could've been real. Zack was watching his girlfriend and saying encouraging things to her. They didn't help Aerith throw any better, but they made her twinkle brightly at him and that was probably the point.

Cloud stopped in the doorway and put his hands on his hips. "Tell me again, but slower and more detail," he said firmly.

"Cloud!" Aerith yelled happily. She turned while throwing and nearly put the dart through the jukebox. At least she didn't have anymore pointy things when she jumped on him for a hug. "You're back early!"

"From that PHS call, think I was too late." He gave Zack a steely stare, but Zack's grin just widened.

"It's not a done deal yet," he said.

"Details," Cloud repeated. "I want details."

Before Zack could get started Tifa and Barret Wallace rode the pinball machine up from the 'secret room' in the basement.

"I can't believe you agreed to this!" Wallace growled.

"It's not a done deal, yet!" Zack called out.

Wallace pointed his gun arm at him. "You stay outta this!"

Zack shrugged.

"What do you expect me to do while you're off fighting for Shinra?" Wallace demanded.

"For one, I won't be fighting _for_ Shinra."

"You'd be getting paid–"

Tifa held her hand up. "Not the same thing. This is a monster hunt. Possibly the deadliest monster on the planet." Her jaw clenched. It took a moment for her to continue. "And two, you can look after the bar for me. Marlene will love it."

"You gonna be here with me, Daddy?" Excited Marlene stood on her barstool. Zack automatically put out a hand to help keep her steady.

Wallace looked at his kid and caved. "Yeah, baby. Daddy's sticking around." Big, angry man with anger issues and a gun arm, and he was helpless before a girl that barely came to his knees. It was kind of funny. Although Cloud had noticed that it usually only worked when Marlene was right in front of the man.

It reminded him of his ma. Half the time, she never remembered he existed unless he was standing under her nose, either.

"You gonna learn how to mix drinks like Tifa?" The kid's voice was full of doubt.

Tifa laughed. "I think I'll get Biggs to do that."

"Good idea," Wallace muttered. More loudly he added, "C'mon sweetheart. Let's go getta ice cream and then see if we can find Sally in the playground."

Marlene squealed in joy, and jumped, absolutely confident that her da would catch her. He did of course, swinging her up as easily as Zack swung his big buster sword.

They all watched as the small family left. They all waited as Cloud flipped the lock on the door.

"Who could use a drink?" Tifa asked into the ominous quiet.

Cloud raised his hand. "Something hard."

"Make it two," Zack added.

"I'd like something with an umbrella," Aerith said, skipping over to the bar. Cloud noticed Tifa's eyes tracking the movement, how it took Tifa a moment to say 'sure', and the light tinge of colour in his childhood friend's cheeks.

His eyebrows went up – wasn't that interesting? Then he put it aside for the more immediate concern.

Swinging a leg over the stool next to Zack's, he leaned in. "Details."

.o0|0o.

"You asked for _how much_?" Cloud's voice nearly cracked, and his jaw wouldn't close. He didn't care.

"One hundred thousand up front, no refunds," Zack repeated. "Ten million if we get him."

"Dead or alive," Cloud asked.

"They'd prefer alive," Zack responded.

Tifa muttered, "I'd prefer dead" softly enough that they could ignore it.

"And expenses, and equipment–"

"New materia," Aerith broke in, clasping her hands under her chin.

"Materia…." Cloud trailed off. He scrubbed a hand over his head, digging into his scalp as if that would help his brain run more efficiently. "To hunt Sephiroth," he repeated.

Aerith nodded, Tifa glowered, but Zack just looked at him.

"What," he asked.

Zack sighed. He looked away for a moment, then down at his drink. He lifted it to Tifa, silently asking for a refill. She took it just as silently.

"I don't think it _is_ Sephiroth," he finally said staring into the amber liquid in his glass.

That made everyone still.

"It was him." Tifa was the first to speak. "That coat. His hair… He used Masamune."

Zack nodded, throwing back the whisky. "Yeah, that was all there…" He made a face, perhaps unsure how to phrase it, or how they'd take whatever he had to say.

"But?" Cloud prodded.

A sigh. "He didn't move right," Zack finally said. "The walk was… Did you ever see him in person?" he asked Cloud.

"At ceremonies, parades, stuff like that," Cloud answered but Zack was already shaking his head.

"If you ever saw him walking in the hall, just as himself, y'know, and not THE SILVER GENERAL –" He looked at Tifa, "Okay, so there was _some_ basis to thinking he had military rank." She just sniffed. He turned back to Cloud. "If you saw him away from everyone else, when it was just us SOLDIERs, he wasn't stiff like he was in public. His movements were deliberate, sure, but not _fussy_ ; he just moved from here to there as efficiently as possible."

"That's what we saw," Tifa said.

"Maybe. Okay, with the odd time jumps and stuff, but…" Again, Zack sighed. "The Sephiroth in the cameras…. He was far too aware of the way his body was moving – like a bad guy monologuing in a movie – but, at the same time, there was no _weight_ to it."

"If it wasn't Sephiroth, then who?" Cloud asked.

Zack's eyebrows went up and he nodded. "That's the question, isn't it? Something Hojo cooked up to replace him? Maybe something that wants to continue whatever he started in Nibelheim."

Cloud looked at Aerith. She looked unusually serious, but she gave a small shrug. Either she didn't know the story either, or she didn't think it was her story to tell.

"What started in Nibelheim?" Cloud asked.

"You mean HQ wasn't buzzing with gossip?" Zack asked bitterly. "You didn't hear how we went nuts or whatever, and caused an explosion at the reactor?"

"Was in a coma 'til December," Cloud interrupted. "All I ever heard was the official version. What I know different, I got from Tifa." He nodded at his fellow Nibelheimer.

"I told Cloud the basics – what I knew, at least." Tifa said. "Something happened at the reactor –an argument, I guess, because Genesis went in and Sephiroth stormed out. He went to the mansion someone said, but nobody knew for sure. When he came out, he burned down the village, killed everyone he saw, then went to the reactor."

"You and your dad tried to stop him," Zack said. "I found you at the reactor and you were hurt." Tifa nodded. "Did he say anything to you?"

Cloud held up his hand. "Wait. Start at the beginning, so we all know the same stuff. And don't skip any –"

"Details. Got it." Zack nodded. He took a visible breath. "The beginning. Uh, that would be about the time Shinra captured Fort Tamblin." Aerith tipped her head, and Zack stopped. "No, maybe let's go back further. To whenever Shinra dug up a creature they called Jenova and decided she was an Ancient…."

.o0|0o.

It took a long time, and there were sidebars from everyone except Cloud. All Cloud had was questions.

Cloud looked at everyone. They'd already had two drinks and Cloud was thinking of asking for another. "So, base assumption is that Jenova – the thing used to enhance the original Firsts – was the Calamity written 'bout by the Ancients."

"Cetra," Aerith corrected. Zack just nodded.

"And Professor Gast – your father," he nodded at Aerith who nodded back once. "Assumed Jenova was an Ancient, I mean Cetra, 'cause…?"

"She was partly Cetra," Aerith answered. "At least the host body was probably Cetra." She frowned, and Cloud figured it was because she was trying to remember everything her birth mother had told her.

Talk about tragic backstories….

Out of the four of them, Zack was the only one whose parents were still alive, but he'd suffered four years being Hojo's experiment. Not a great deal as far as Cloud was concerned, but maybe Zack was close to his parents, so he'd think it was a good thing? Cloud wasn't sure he'd make that trade, but he hadn't been close to his ma. He'd loved her, but…. She'd been difficult to live with.

Aerith sighed and pulled Cloud's attention back to the conversation. "I don't know why, really. I think when they dug her up, she was encased in hardened mako? And something about where they found her supported the idea that she'd been buried over 2,000 years ago."

"Which is the Time of the Ancients," Zack nodded. "According to our archaeological record – which is Shinra's archaeological record so not necessarily to be trusted."

"Where was it found?" Tifa asked. "Did she say?"

Aerith just shook her head.

"Well, there's not that many places that have open mako pools," Zack said. "Not large enough to encase a whole body in hardened mako, anyway."

"There's a mako cave outside of Nibelheim," Cloud said. "Lotsa weird formations, all big."

Tifa looked at him. "Didn't know that." Cloud shrugged. He'd spent more time in the mountains than any other kid in Nibelheim. Mostly because the bullies wouldn't follow him off the paths. Too afraid of wolves and dragons. Cloud had been scared too, but Nibel wolves and dragons were rarer than Nibelheim bullies, so….

"Would fit with Shinra putting in a lab in Nibelheim," Cloud added, but Zack shook his head.

"Jenova was _brought_ to Nibelheim," he said. "Hojo made that clear when he rambled."

"Too bad he didn't ramble about useful stuff," Aerith pouted. Zack gave her a soft peck on the cheek, and she cheered right up.

Tifa huffed out a breath. "Okay, so where else would it be possible?"

"Mideel has a huge open mako pool," Zack said. "But it's flat and the town's pretty well developed. No place to hide a large expedition.

"Northern Continent," Cloud said firmly. "They've that long-time dig going on, and half the continent's frozen and unexplored."

"It didn't use to be," Zack added. "A hundred years ago, Modeoheim was a summer retreat. Now it's cold all year round."

Cloud nodded. He remembered Modeoheim. "Wasn't there a reactor there?"

"It was never finished," Zack said. "They got the processor mostly done, but then… They just stopped."

Cloud hummed. "Never built the mako reactor in Wutai either. Or rebuilt the one in Gongaga. Why not?"

"Maybe that's when President Shinra became interested in the Promised Land," Zack said. "If he was looking for a better world than here–"

"Then why bother fixing this one," Tifa finished.

Cloud looked at both of them. " _Is_ he looking for the Promised Land?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah. I remember Angeal and Lazard talking about how it'd become an obsession."

Tifa groaned. "Obsessions are bad for everyone."

Cloud wondered if Tifa realized that was equally true of her own obsessions. He didn't mention it though. They'd had that discussion too many times to start it up again now.

"Next question: what _is_ the Promised Land."

Aerith, kept her hands tight against her chest and her eyes down. "I only know a little – just what I can remember from my real mother." Zack rubbed a hand down her arm. "She used to tell me this prayer. She said it was very old, and she didn't remember all of it, and probably not correctly,"

"Doesn't matter," Zack said. "Still more than we have now."

Aerith closed her eyes and a calmness came over her. " _We who are born of the planet, with her we speak. Her flesh we shape. Unto her promised land shall we one day return. By her loving grace and providence may we take our place in paradise._ "

For a moment, the only sound was the music form the jukebox and the soft trilling of the pinball machine.

"Sounds like a place you go after you die," Cloud said. Zack and Tifa nodded. "How would dying and going to a heaven benefit Shinra, man or company?"

"Probably thinks it's filled with mako he can pump out." Tifa's suggestion was bitter, but nobody argued.

"I think Hojo might be responsible for whatever stupid beliefs the president has about it," Zack finally said. "He's the one who knew your mother was a Cetra – or an Ancient. And the SOLDIER program was winding down."

"War with Wutai was over," Cloud commented.

Zack nodded. "And he'd never managed to make another Sephiroth – or even a Genesis or an Angeal."

"They made you," Tifa pointed out.

Zack shook his head. "I wasn't on their level. I mean, I was _good_ , but I couldn't slice though metre-thick concrete using my own energy or conjure fire out of nothing. I was closest to Angeal, but even he outpowered me."

"But you killed him," Tifa said.

It was a cold thing to say, and Zack dropped his head to hide the sting. "Yeah, but only because he let me." This time, Aerith's hand rubbed up and down Zack's arm.

"So, SOLDIER program was a failure, unneeded, or both," Cloud said into the silence. "Hojo needed something to keep the gil flowing – so he could keep doing his experiments. He uses something he learned from Aerith's mother a decade earlier, twists it to suit his needs, and sells it to old man Shinra."

"Sounds about right," Zack said. Aerith nodded.

Cloud nodded too. "How's that help us find Sephiroth now?"

This time the silence was broken by Tifa setting out some more drinks – her way of apologizing.

Zack laughed, a bitter scrape of sound. "Hells if I know."

"So we're going to do this?" Aerith asked. "Go after Sephiroth?"

Cloud scrubbed his filthy hair. He kinda wished he'd stopped at his apartment long enough to take a shower. "If the stuff he said to Zack's still his end goal…"

"Rule the planet, sail the stars," Zack squinted. "Or maybe that one was a dream… I know he said he and Jenova would take over the Promised Land."

"Another asshole obsessed with the Promised Land," Tifa muttered. Aerith held up her glass to be clinked and Tifa obliged before they both took long swallows.

Cloud decided a drink was a good idea. He held up his glass, and Zack picked up his, and there was clinking and drinking all round.

Then the floor moved.

"Woah!" Aerith breathed. She looked at her glass.

The bottles on the shelves behind the bar started to bump together. Then they started bumping off the shelves.

"Earthquake," Zack said.

" _Earthquake?_ " Tifa echoed in disbelief. Cloud was already jumping over the counter.

Zack bundled Aerith up. "Get away from the glass; under the tables or something that'll cover our heads." He pushed some chairs away from the closest table and tucked both of them under it.

When Cloud looked under the heavy countertops for a place for him and Tifa to shelter out the worst of it he saw Marlene's small pink backpack, forgotten and incongruously bright in the dim space, but not enough space for them to use it as shelter.

He tried to pull Tifa out into the serving area. Zack's idea wasn't a bad one.

"There are no earthquakes in _Midgar_ ," Tifa said, as if that would stop what was happening.

It _was_ a valid point, Cloud acknowledged, but one that didn't matter right now. Seventh Heaven may have been one of the stronger buildings in the sector, but the ground was _heaving_. The fridge had toppled. The small appliances slid all over the counter. It was _dangerous_ back here.

One slid right off and fell at Tifa's feet. She hopped out of the way and finally followed him.

Half the chairs had bounce away or fallen over, so climbing under a table was quick.

"Grab a leg," he told her. "Try to keep the table above you." Then there was nothing to do but wait. Wait while the floor, shifted and creaked, heaved and groaned.

They dropped a metre or two, then what felt like five more in three brutal drops. The tables shifted and slid, so Cloud drove his fingers into the floor, using some of the unnatural strength Hojo's experiments had given him. It helped, but his knees still felt bruised as the world finally steadied.

They waited.

Most of the lights were gone, but some had only flickered and dimmed. The pinball machine and jukebox were quiet. Beneath him, the thick planks that made up the bar's floor had spread out allowing him a glimpse of a void dimly lit by greenish light.

"Think we fell into the secret underground lab." He repeated it louder for Zack and Aerith across the room under their own table.

"Real funny, Cloud," Tifa said, frowning. "This is a disaster. If Seventh Heaven is this badly damaged, then rest of the sector will be awful. We have to help."

She made to scramble out from under the table, but Cloud took his fingers out of the wood floor and grabbed her foot. "Need to survive first."

There was an ominous creak and then a chunk of the second floor came down on top of their table. If Tifa had been out there, she would've been crushed.

"Actually," Zack called out above the noise. "I think Tifa's got a good idea. Let's move to the door, taking the tables with us."

"Why?" he called out his question, even as he obediently started shuffling towards Seventh Heaven's front door.

"I think the plate might collapse," Zack called back. "At least part of it. I can hear metal shrieking." Beside him, another piece of the second floor fell.

"Might be the lab," Cloud suggested

Zack looked grim. "Maybe. Either way, I think something very important just blew up."

"So, maybe this isn't an earthquake." Aerith didn't say it as a question.

"But we called off the job," Tifa said. "We didn't go after the reactors."

They were halfway to the door, but there was rubble in the way that was hard to crawl over while under tables.

"I doubt this was Avalanche," Zack said, pushing more stuff to the side. "Even in Fuhito's day, they couldn't pull this off."

"Maybe they never tried before," Cloud suggested.

Zack shook his head. "If a plate goes down, that's big. That's internal."

"Great," Tifa muttered.

They were nearly at the front entrance when there was a long, slow groan. Everything rumbled – "Brace yourself!" – and they dropped another couple metres. They dropped so hard and fast that Cloud actually bounced. His head hit the table, and Cloud automatically let go of the table leg to rub the hurt away.

Unfortunately, the floor tilted out from under him, and Cloud rolled out and away from the dubious safety of the heavy tables.

He didn't go far, because the secret room under the pinball machine was halfway through the floor, and the second floor on that side was now completely down. He rolled into a stubborn beam. Dirt and small debris showered down on him. The whole building groaned, shook, but eventually stilled.

There was silence.

At least, it felt like silence after the last few minutes. The lights buzzed unhappily. He could hear water running from torn pipes, and there was dirt and plaster dust sprinkling down from everywhere.

Everyone called out to him. "I'm okay," he answered. "Pride, more 'n anything." He heard Aerith's okay and Tifa's tsk, but he didn't care. It looked like they'd all survived whatever the hells had just happened

He rolled away from the beam – and the weight of roof it was holding up. Looking around, he saw the whole right side of the bar was destroyed – the secret room had been pushed up, the wall was caved in, and everything was squished by the second-floor collapsing – but the rest of the room was recognizable. More or less.

There were huge cracks in the floor – gaps large enough to catch a foot in. More of the odd greenish light seeped through.

A metre or so away, the floor had dropped a half-metre further at least. It left that end of the bar hanging off into nothing, but it was whole. The left back corner, where the washrooms used to be, seemed to be completely missing.

"Now what?" Tifa asked. "Can we still get out the front?"

Cloud looked towards the front door. Where there should be sky, or at least plate, there was dirt.

"No," he said. "It's dirt."

"Up to the second floor then," Zack suggested, sticking his head out to see for himself.

Cloud looked up along the collapsed second floor, tracking an uneven line up to the next level. There were jagged edges sticking out from large, drooping cracks that would be great to impale invaders on. It all looked ready to fall. A large sheet of metal gave a 'twang' from somewhere upstairs, and the ceiling released a gout of plaster and dust, and whatever had been used as flooring.

"Not sure that's gonna be possible."

"Nope. That's out," Zack said watching the bits fall.

"Where then?" Aerith asked.

Cloud stood up carefully – he may have hit his hip a little harder than he'd let on to the others – and let his eyes drift over the rest of the bar. They might be able to get up the back stairs, but it was too dark to see if they'd survived.

In the corner of his eye, he saw greenish light coming from the bathroom that didn't exist anymore. Maybe it was a way down into whatever Shinra had built below the sector? Not a great option, but better than staying here.

"Hang on," Cloud said then very carefully took a step.

The floor under him didn't bend, didn't give.

He made his way to the far-left corner, carefully going from plank to plank, making sure each would take his weight.

The left side was a half-metre lower than the rest of the bar. Cloud stepped down carefully, and held his breath as things groaned in protest. He stepped forward – one step, two – until he was finally close enough to see that the washroom had fallen a further ten metres. It was a box of debris in a steel and concrete passageway that screamed Nefarious and Secret.

"Found a way out of the bar!" he called to the rest. "Not sure it'll take us to safety."

He turned to see that the rest of them had climbed out from under the tables. "Need to load up – every potion, every materia and anything else we can carry. This is definitely Shinra's secret underground lab.."

"Ah, fuck no," Zack sighed. "Why does it have to be a lab?"

Cloud winced in sympathy. "Could be storage. Could even be maintenance tunnels."

"We're not that lucky."

" _I'm_ that lucky," Aerith said, smiling with significance at Zack.

"Floor's on the roof of a cage, right now," Cloud told them. "Don't hear any noises so must be empty."

"So, the floor's okay?" Zack asked.

"Should be safe as long as you don't jump." He might've added 'and don't weigh 130 kilos' but Zack was light on his feet for the amount of muscle he carried.

Except, apparently, the planks didn't care that Zack was light-footed.

The SOLDIER's first step caused the plank he was standing on to creak and bend ominously. Its movement caused the things around the plank to shift – like the front door. The bottom hinge popped, and the door itself swung crookedly from the remaining hinge. Dirt from the outside dribbled in.

Zack froze. "Well, shit,"

Tifa said held up a hand. "Me'n Aerith'll gather up supplies. We're light." Cloud nodded agreement. Zack didn't look happy, but he crossed his arms and settled in to wait.

Tifa and Aerith went to Avalanche's exposed secret room, where Tifa broke open the back of a cabinet and pulled out whatever her and her buddies had stockpiled. Cloud carefully ducked under the intact counter before climbing back up behind the bar. He grabbed snacks and water and whatever else he could fit in Marlene's small backpack.

When he got back to the gaping hole, Aerith, braced by Tifa, was looking down to the dimly lit bottom. "That's quite a way down," she said.

Cloud looked at her. She looked game, but nervous. "I'll go first, clean it out, then come catch you."

Aerith nodded, but Tifa didn't. "I can make the jump." She probably could, and it wasn't worth fighting about, so Cloud just nodded.

He drew Iron Blade, braced himself, and jumped down onto the remains of Seventh Heaven's washroom. He jumped off as soon as he landed. Good thing. The damaged structure shivered and collapsed into a large pile of rubble.

Cloud tried to filter out the sound of it to listen for anything hostile approaching. There was just the drip of water, and the gentle 'ting-ting' of falling pebbles.

When he turned back, his theory that Seventh Heaven was laying on top of a large cage was proven correct. Large and empty, with thick bars meant to hold something that was actively trying to escape, it was holding for now. But the foundation and flooring of Seventh Heaven was sliding through the openings. If enough fell away, the planks would start to slide and that would be dangerous for everyone.

He went back and kicked the sharpest bits of the washroom's remains to the side. He cleared out a small space, before calling up, "Jump to the left."

Tifa, smart girl that she was, caught herself on the bar's floor first, then lightly swung herself over the rubble pile. She landed in a perfect 3-point pose like the kind used by heroes in movies and comic books.

"Show off," he said fondly.

She just grinned at him. "You get Aerith. I'll check for monsters."

Cloud put his sword back in its harness. Aerith barely let him get into position before she jumped down. Cloud caught her, but he stumbled a bit. Aerith giggled. "Thank you, Cloud."

For some reason, that made Cloud blush red as Ifrit's ears.

"Everything looks clear," Tifa said from the side. "Should move over here, in case the whole thing collapses when Zack moves."

"It's not allowed to collapse on Zack," Aerith said with great seriousness.

Cloud ignored that in favour of following Tifa's suggestion. Once they were (probably) out of range of any debris, he shouted to his friend that it was safe to come down. They waited, listening for any tell-tale creak, looking for the sudden gush of debris.

There were creaks and there was falling debris, and it seemed to take as long as a Nibel winter, but eventually Zack dropped down. He landed lightly on bent knees, but otherwise looked like he'd just strolled down main street. The bright pink stripes in his shirt glowed in the dim light.

"Which way?"

"No idea," Tifa said. Cloud and Aerith had to shake their heads as well. There were no arrows, no exit signs, no helpful maps pointing them to a way out.

Zack closed his eyes, and they all stilled, letting him listen to things other than themselves. A moment later, he opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Would the main doors be closer to Shinra Tower, do you think?" Aerith asked.

Zack shrugged. "Makes as much sense as anything."

"Well, if that was the washrooms, the central pillar'll be that way." Tifa pointed her chin to the right of the hole.

"Alrighty-then," Zack said. "That's the way we'll go."

"We should redistribute Tifa's supplies," Aerith said.

Cloud looked up at the straining ribs of the bar. "Let's get out from under Seventh Heaven, then we can do that."

They hadn't gone very far down the wide, dimly lit corridor when there was a distant 'whomp'. All the lights flickered, and they could hear roars from things living down here – probably in more cages. It was all far away, until it wasn't.

"Fuck me," Zack whispered. "The floor's rippling up ahead."

"We should grab something," Tifa added.

It seemed logical to drop to the ground and grab the grated flooring. Except they hadn't counted on the flooring being unsecured. Maybe Shinra'd forgot to screw down this one or maybe relied on the weight of the metal plates to stay in place. Whatever the reason, one moment they were crouched, waiting for the tremor to pass, and the next they were falling, falling….

All Cloud could do was keep relaxed until he felt that first impact, and then roll. It wasn't quite as graceful as it could've been because his sword harness got caught, and his ribs hit the cross guard with breath-stealing force. "Wolf nuts!" Cloud said

Zack, the only one of them standing, gave a cough of laughter. "Really?" he said. "Wolf nuts?"

"Don't make fun of a man in pain," Cloud replied. He cast Cure on himself and got up. By that point, Zack had checked on both Aerith and Tifa. Aerith did what Cloud had and cast a low-level healing spell, but Tifa waved away Cloud's offer.

Cloud looked up. They followed his gaze. The original corridor was fifteen metres above them. "Deeper into the rabbit hole," he said. "Fun."

Zack's PHS rang and everyone jumped. It echoed in the large, empty space they'd landed in. Zack looked at the display – "Turks," he muttered – before flipping it open. "Hiya Cissnei."

If Cloud concentrated, he would probably hear the other side of the conversation, but he trusted Zack to tell them later, so he turned his attention to space they'd landed in. It was better constructed that the upper corridor. The walls were smooth, and there were large pipes for electrical, or water – or maybe they were more secret passages. Who the hells knew with Shinra? There were pallets on the floor and storage boxes piled haphazardly in corners. Out of curiosity, he walked over to the nearest pile and opened the top box. "Holy Odin's mighty sword," he whispered.

Inside the crate, tossed in like junk, were old infantry uniforms. Some were damaged, but many were just… here. There were bracers, and belly guards, and and some gloves that looked like they'd been made for a close-quarters fighter, with thick metal bands over the knuckles and wrists.

While Zack went "I don't believe that and neither do you," to his Turk friend, Cloud called Tifa and Aerith over.

"These aren't new," he said. "These belonged to soldiers."

"SOLDIER?"

"Infantry," Cloud clarified. "Regular army. I wore this exact uniform."

"Oh. Why're they here?" Tifa asked.

"Dunno." He lifted up a belly-guard. "You get given one of these when you join. Heavy, uncomfortable as Ifrit's Hells. You wear it day after day, and eventually, it fits, and you don't notice it anymore."

Tifa frowned. "It's just armour."

Cloud shook his head. "Change your uniform as you get promoted. Don't change this. "

"Did they die?" Aerith asked. She was hunched slightly away from the boxes. Clenched hand lifted to her chin.

"Uniforms don't look damaged. Used though. No names that I can see." Cloud sighed. "Bracers and accessories are supposed go to the family when a soldier dies, so I dunno."

"Wouldn't be the first time Shinra flouted their own rules," Tifa said and nobody could argue with that.

With a silent apology to the soldiers whose gear they were rifling through, Cloud held out the gloves he'd found. Tifa took them like he'd hoped she would. Aerith took a bracelet that had more materia slots than what she was using now. Cloud pulled out one of the heavy belly-guards, and looked it over for wear or damage.

Zack came over after his call ended. "So that was Cissnei – oh hey! Belly-guards!" He grabbed the top one and tried it on. "She just called to let me know that the decision on our contract would be delayed." He gave the one in his hand to Tifa. "This should fit you."

"But –"

"Better to have more protection. Don't know what we're going to run into down here." He was so serious, that Tifa took it without another word.

"What else did he say?" Cloud asked. He took the guard from Tifa when she couldn't figure out the buckles.

Zack was buckling Aerith into one. It looked odd over her delicate dress. "The official word is terrorists – Avalanche with Wutai's backing."

Tifa, in the middle of a kata, making sure she could move the way she was used to in the strange armour, spat "That's not true!"

Zack snorted unhappily. " _We_ know it's not true, and _they_ know it's not true, but everyone else in Midgar will be reassured that it's a known enemy."

"And not a reanimated super SOLDIER, or a copy of one."

Zack smiled at Aerith. "Exactly!" He'd finally found a belly-guard that fit, and the buckles clinked lightly as he fastened them. He shimmied a couple times once it was secure, did a couple squats. When he straightened, Zack somehow seemed more the SOLDIER First Class he'd been than at any time since Cloud had found him.

"Didn't tell her where we were?" Cloud asked.

Zack rubbed his scalp. "Ahh, no," he admitted.

"Why not?" Tifa asked, and Cloud had to agree with her. Having a super efficient member of Shinra's secret service out to rescue them…. Not a bad idea.

"Because what if they have standing orders to kill anyone who finds out about this place?"

"Would they?" Cloud looked to Aerith since she had the most experience with the Turks. Aerith, looking sad, just shrugged. "Guess we get out of this ourselves."

Cloud and Aerith opened the rest of the boxes. Aerith found one filled with potions and small items they might be able to use. Cloud found more uniforms including a better bracer for Zack and a materia – a red materia.

He touched it. It pulsed.

"Whatchya find, Cloud?" Tifa asked, coming over.

"An Ifrit summon," he said. He laughed. "A guy in my squad, Limri Nev, had an Ifrit summon. Passed down for, like, five generations."

Zack hesitated. "Was he in the squad that Hojo…?"

Cloud nodded. "Didn't come out of the coma, they said."

"Could that be his then?" Tifa asked.

Cloud's first instinct was to say that Shinra would've sent such a valuable materia home to Nev's family, but of course, they might not have. He tried sensing the materia, its history, but although he could feel the energy of the summon, he couldn't tell if this was Nev's or not. If Nev was alive, surely they'd let him keep it?

"Anybody mind if I take this one?" There were no objections.

After a moment, Zack continued his recap. "So anyway, Cissnei also wanted to warn me about the possibility that some experiments might manage to escape in the confusion. 'Might manage', right." He shook his head. "So, like the good little mercenary I am now, I asked if there'd be a bounty on all the ones we kill. Cissnei raised an eyebrow–"

"How do you know that." Aerith asked, curious.

"Well, she was deeply silent for a while. I knew she was giving me a Look."

"Hmm," she said, giving him what was probably the exact same look.

Tifa pulled out a net bag with three metal balls. "Are these grenades?"

Cloud looked at them. "Yah."

"Do we want them?"

"Nah," Zack said. "They're heavy and they don't do as much damage as your punch does." The compliment made Tifa blush.

Cloud hid his smile. "Can use the bag to carry potions."

At the end of their search, they'd found three ethers and two hi-potions, five regular potions, two phoenix downs and an elixir. They'd also found a couple antidotes, an echo screen (which Zack said would cure Silence), a couple remedies, and two more materia. Added to the stuff they'd scrounged from Avalanche's secret lair, and suddenly they had more materia than they had slots.

They went looking for more bracers and belts and anything that had a slot.

"We can double up on the accessories," Zack said in warning. "But watch yourselves. Just wearing materia can be draining, so if you got too much on just say so. Better to appear weak –" he air-quoted "– now, than to actually _be_ weak in battle."

They all nodded. If they were like Cloud, they could feel the pull of all the materia they wore – a steady small drain that maintained the link between a person and the materia. It's how it stored power and how it leveled, and why nobody else could activate them remotely.

With two wrist bracers and his sword, Cloud was wearing nine total and that felt like his limit. It was manageable, he thought, but he'd have to see if that held true in combat.

For some reason, when they'd all finished scavenging, they lined up in front of Zack like recruits before battle, and the former SOLDIER was inspecting them the same way, checking straps and balance. Except for the kiss he grabbed from Aerith, it could've been any pre-mission check.

After that, he stood back, hands on hips, and looked at each of them in turn. He gave a small, bitter smile. "I only have one word of advice," he said. "No matter the situation, never let go your pride as a _mercenary_. Got it?

Tifa shifted, arms crossed. "Seriously?"

Zack's smile widened, became natural. "Nah. Let's do what we need to to get the fuck out of here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is interested, why yes, I did spend hours figuring out which materia they had, which ones Tifa pulled from the secret lair, and what levels they'd all be at. And then I spent even more time figuring out who had what. (I can provide you with a chart if you like… heh)
> 
> I cheated by allowing them to wear more armour and accessories than the game allows, but I hopefully balanced that by having a mental/physical cost to wearing materia. 
> 
> Also, I have a constantly changing playlist [on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RtGrPPPgyLUvNnhYCEk8P?si=npARdmiqTJqGPwP_cy2zdQ) that I listen to while I write. Look for me there as etrixan if you're interested.


	16. Unwelcoming Halls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tifa isn't sure she wants to be part of this group, but it's not really a choice she has down here. Still, she'll keep her eyes open. But a former SOLDIER turns out to be the last thing she needs to be concerned about.

Tifa wondered what the hells she was doing, following Zack Fair. Sure, he seemed decent, seemed to know what he was doing, but he was still SOLDIER – one of Shinra's pet bully boys.

He'd ditched the uniform – boy, had he ever – but SOLDIERs couldn't be trusted. Whatever Shinra did to make them super strong, super fast, super hard to kill, also made them super crazy. She'd already known about Sephiroth, but just look at what Fair had said about Rhapsodos and Hewley.

Not that she, or any of them, had much choice about who they were going to fight with. They were two layers down in another one of Shinra's Evil Fucking Labs, and goddess knew what they could encounter.

They distributed their gear, pooling all their materia to try to make the best matches for everyone for what they might encounter. Like Cloud pointed out, most monsters were weak to Blizzard and most people were weak to fire – so all they made sure all the Ice and Fire materia was equipped.

They'd found a couple decent battle packs, and she, Cloud, and Zack loaded themselves up with the heavy potions. Aerith kept Marlene's tiny pink backpack because, "Physical strength isn't my strong suit. Besides, the colour suits me." She'd smiled, inviting Tifa to join in the joke, but all Tifa could think was that Aerith's eyes were just so _green_.

It was an odd thing to think about another woman.

"Alrighty-then. We just about ready?" Fair asked. He stood back, hands on hips, and looked at each of them in turn and they all just stood there and let him.

Fair gave a small, mocking smile. "I only have one word of advice," he said. "No matter the situation never let go your pride as a _mercenary_. Got it?

Tifa shifted, crossing her arms in annoyance. "Seriously?" Did he think they were his private army?

Zack's smile brightened. "Nah. Let's do what we need to so we can get the fuck out of here."

 _That_ at least Tifa could fully support. "Which way?"

Fair squinted and looked about. Behind where they landed, the room ended, but there seemed to be a ladder down to a lower level. In front of them, there was dimly lit corridor.

"If it helps," Tifa said. "I think that way's north." She tipped her chin at the corridor.

He smiled, relieved. "North should take us to the central hub," he reminded the group. "Hopefully, there'll be more exits that way."

Like Tifa expected, Cloud just shrugged. Aerith, however, made her agreement sound like they were on the bestest adventure ever!

Tifa didn't know how she did it. How could Aerith be so optimistic when the world was literally falling down around them? Yet…. There was something magnetic about that attitude. It certainly had enough power to pull Tifa's attention to the caster again and again.

"Tifa!" Zack's voice pulled her out of her reverie. He smiled as if he knew what she'd been thinking about. Considering she'd been thinking about his girlfriend, Tifa hoped not.

As melee fighters, she and Zack took the lead heading into the passageway. Cloud guarded their rear, and Aerith was protected in the middle. The corridor was wide, dimly lit, and curved for no reason that Tifa could figure out. They came across large rats that were even uglier than doom rats, gorgers, and swarms of nasty flying bugs she'd never seen before.

Cloud, who'd kept Assess equipped for just these encounters, had nothing useful to say about them. "They're bugs," he shrugged. "Just hit 'em real hard."

They came to a Y intersection. The passage on the left was skinnier than the one on the right. Fair asked. "Anybody got any idea which way is north?" He looked at her when he said it, but hopefully – not as if he expected her to know.

Tifa went back over their journey, plotting it out in her mind the way she used to map the trails around Nibelheim. "Right," she said.

"Yeah?"

"Pretty sure," she said not waiting for him. He bounced up beside her anyway.

"Y'know, it's the weirdest thing," he said casually. "Put me anywhere outdoors – jungle, desert, a wide open plain – and I don't get lost. Ever. Anything underground though…." He shook his head.

"You hear anything up ahead," she asked instead of chit-chatting. His smile dimmed, but he obediently listened only to report air fans and maybe more bugs.

He was right.

Every once in a while, there'd be a hatch in the corridor, like the kind she'd seen in submarine movies, but not once was the heavy door closed let alone locked.

"If Shinra's doing evil experiments under its biggest city, you'd think they'd do better with their security," she said in disgust as they passed through yet another unlatched door.

Beside her, Fair laughed. "Their security has always been awful," he said. "Every couple of months we'd be called out to round up escaped experiments."

Tifa looked at him. "You're an escaped experiment now."

That wiped his smile away. "Yeah, I suppose so." Tifa tried not to feel bad, but she hadn't meant it to sound so mean. Fair was… He was being a good guy, and Tifa had never thought he was _evil_ , not like President Shinra.

But he'd been part of something evil, and he'd seemed _proud_ of it. Then, when she'd asked him, he hadn't helped to make it right. She told herself that she could work with him, without having to _like_ him.

She still felt bad.

Another sharp turn took them into a long corridor lined with storage boxes on shelves. "How long'd it take them to build all this under our feet?" she asked, not expecting an answer.

"I imagine they started digging at the same time they started building Midgar," Fair said. "So that'd be…"

"Forty years," Cloud filled in when Fair stalled.

"Forty years," Fair repeated. "Fuuuuck. I am _not_ looking forward to finding out what they've been doing down here all that time."

"Should we see what's in the boxes?" Aerith asked.

There were hundreds of them.

"Uhh," Fair stalled.

"Take too long," Cloud said. "And we got all we can carry."

Aerith seemed wistful about not getting to break anything

They cleared out some more bugaboos and turned the corner. It was blocked with rubble.

"Ugh," Tifa muttered.

Fair swung his sword onto his left shoulder. "No problem." He leaned back, right fist bunched, left leg up. A huff of breath, gathering energy that made him crackle. Then Fair stepped forward and his fist slammed into the piled stones.

They vaporized.

"Yes!" Fair pumped his fist. Tifa's ears popped from the change in pressure and she had to swallow a couple times to get them to equalize.

He looked up at her. "Have you been practicing it?" he asked.

Tifa shook her head. "No real place to do that kind of damage," she said.

"Yeah, I suppose," Fair gave her a sympathetic look. "Next blockage is all yours. Want me to run through the move again?"

Before Tifa remembered she was angry with the SOLDIER, she'd already nodded her head. So that's how they spent the next fifteen minutes of their journey, with him giving her a refresher.

They still paid attention to where they were going, killing more bugs and rats, but mostly Fair explained again how he channeled his power into his physical body and then out through his fist. The next time they came across a passage blocked with rubble, he let Tifa try to break it.

It wasn't the same – they weren't coming out of a fight, not even a small one – but Tifa was a good student. She was disciplined and determined. She was in tune with her body in a way many people weren't – even soldiers. Her body was the weapon, and her mind had the power, and this was no different from training with Master Zangan.

She focused that power, leaning back on her right foot, and when she felt there was enough of energy, she punched forward, slamming her left foot down and throwing her fist in front of her. The boulders weren't turned into dust, but they broke and scattered.

Zack cheered. Aerith offered her a high five. Cloud just nodded but he had a smile on his face, so he was pleased too.

Tifa couldn't help but bounce a little. "That was great!" she said to Zack. "I wonder if I can use that technique in other moves? Like, I've always wanted to be able to hit more than one target."

"Oh yeah," Zack laughed. "That's a handy skill to have. There should be a way to ricochet off one target into another…"

Then it was Tifa's turn to talk, getting Zack's advice and asking him questions. Never once did he pass off or joke about her desire to get better, to be stronger. He told her a funny story about exploding one of Shinra's training simulators, and she laughed.

The passageway they'd taken ended in a huge air conditioning fan. Thankfully, it wasn't moving now, or they would've been sucked into the massive blades and chopped into pieces.

"Why… These fucking tunnels," Zack groaned. "Are we even still heading north?" He looked at her, but all Tifa could do was shrug. He was right about the tunnels: they _were_ fucking stupid.

"What's on the other side do you think?" Aerith asked, still cheerily curious.

A thunderous roar filled the passageway. It wasn't mechanical.

"Nothing good," Cloud answered.

"Right," Zack said firmly. "Might as well keep going. Fuck." He stepped through and looked up. "Seems clear," he said before he started climbing. Aerith skipped through, staring at everything as if she could pull secrets from the cement. (Given what she'd said about being a Cetra, Tifa wasn't ruling it out.)

Cloud looked at her, calmly waiting for her to go ahead of him.

There was a part of Tifa that was abso-fucking-lutely sure that it would start spinning the moment she stepped onto it, and she braced herself to block or jump, but nothing happened. Cloud stepped out next to her just moments later. She heard him let out a relieved breath and felt better about being nervous.

She looked up. Zack was near the top – and she could see up Aerith's skirt.

She looked down and tried to stop her cheeks from colouring.

"Want me to go up first; block the view?" Cloud asked.

Tifa nodded. It was stupid – it was really stupid – but the idea of looking up and seeing under Aerith's skirt made her feel… weird. Like she was intruding on something private. Thankfully, Cloud didn't suffer the same feeling, so he just climbed up fast and steady in front of her.

"Goat's balls," she heard Cloud mutter. He began to climb even faster. Tifa wasn't sure what he'd heard, but it couldn't have been anything good. She matched his pace. Their feet hit the metal rungs with sharp tap-tat-taps.

It didn't take long for her to hear the sounds of battle: Zack shouting as he swung his sword, the odd bird-like sound as Aerith used her staff, and the growls and yelps of a beast – maybe two.

Cloud reached the top and climbed over. Tifa was right behind him.

It was like she'd thought except there were _three_ beasts facing off against Aerith and Zack. They'd obviously once been hounds, but now they looked more like the thing they'd fought in Scrap Boulevard this morning.

It had just been this morning, Tifa realized, even as she ran to flank one of the creatures. Less than a day – _much_ less than a day. It was a jarring realization, but there was no time to explore it.

She had a moment to focus her power and she used it to throw her version of Zack's Iron Fist. It hit the beast squarely in the ribs and it staggered. It was an opportunity they couldn't waste, so she and Cloud concentrated on hitting it and hitting it until it was knocked down and stayed down. It didn't take as long as it had this morning.

"I'm doing a lot more damage with these gloves!" she said to Cloud.

He gave her a small smile. "Good."

One of the beasts ran towards Aerith and they moved to intercept. Cloud cast Stop before it got to her, and Tifa kicked it to the bottom of the stairwell. "Hopefully, it doesn't know how to climb."

Cloud snorted. "It'll climb."

By the time it did jump back up, Zack had already taken care of the third one, so all four of them were waiting. They fell back into the same pattern they'd had in the corridor: Zack and Tifa up front, Cloud casting from the middle and protecting Aerith, and Aerith…. Maybe it was her part-Cetra heritage, but Tifa had never known that someone could cast such powerful magic.

Once all three of the beasts were taken care of, slowly dissolving into the Lifestream, they could look around the platform they'd climbed up to. The first thing Tifa noticed were the cages. There were several large ones, with thick bars bent like Ramah's Lightning. A metal walkway separated them.

"Bet that's where these wee beasties came from," Zack said, echoing Tifa's own thoughts.

There was another thunderous roar from some trapped (or not) beast. It seemed much closer now. It seemed like this path might take them right to it.

Unlike Tifa, Cloud wasn't looking for the source of that roar. Instead, he was looking down at the dissolving hounds. "Aerith," he said quietly. It pulled everyone's attention to him. "That black stuff left behind. Izit natural?" He pointed his chin at the stained metal. Tifa looked too, and she could see what Cloud was asking about. It was liquid, but thick. Purplish-black, it looked like heated tar but smelled like rotten meat.

Aerith crouched close. She put her hand out, holding it above the stuff but not touching it. She closed her eyes, and they waited. One moment. Two…

"It's Jenova," Aerith finally said. "Her cells were in the creature. But Jenova's not of the Planet, and her cells don't belong in the Lifestream." She shook her hand as if it stung.

Cloud frowned. "So, her… taint, it's being filtered out?"

Aerith shut her eyes again and clasped her hands under her chin as if in prayer.

"I don't know." She finally shook her head. "It's too hard to hear anything down here."

"Izit okay to kill them?" Cloud asked.

Both Tifa and Zack stared at him. "We can't just pet them. Ask them nicely to get out of our way," she said in what she thought was a very reasonable tone.

Zack jerked at thumb at her. "What she said."

Cloud looked at each of them. "Jenova poisons living things, mutates them, yah?" They nodded. "If the Lifestream is part of the planet, then killing creatures mutated with Jenova cells takes that taint into it." For a moment, the only sound was the soft hum of the lights. Then Zack turned away, cursing long and loudly. Tifa agreed with all of it.

"If the planet gets poisoned," Aerith said. "Then we're all doomed anyway."

"We need to fix this," Tifa said.

"Yes." Aerith nodded. "Somehow."

"Will fire destroy the Jenova cells?" Tifa asked. "Do it fast enough, maybe they won't get in to the Lifestream at all."

The green sparkles were just beginning to form beneath the skin of the beasts when she finally nodded. They seemed heavy, weighted down. Aerith considered it briefly before nodding. "Should work," she said.

Cloud already had his Fire Materia out. In a flash he had it equipped and blasted the carcass with Fire.

It didn't completely dissolve.

He gave the next one a Fira. It dissolved.

He grunted. "Gonna eat up my MP."

"We'll keep an eye out for ethers," Zack said, coming back to the group. "And if we come across a lab – or anything that might hold _any_ kind of research – we raid it. Right?" They all nodded because there was no other option. "For right now, we gotta get out of this place. Now we can keep going." He waved to indicate the way forward, through a massive metal door that was bent enough to allow passage. "The worst we've encountered in this area are these bloodhounds. But can't say that'll continue."

"That's where the roaring is coming from?" Aerith asked. As if in answer, there was another bellow, followed by the sounds of smashing, as if something huge was punching a wall to get out.

"Other option is through that crack." He jerked his chin to the left. "It might go to a different area of this complex, or it might go to a completely different one."

"With things worse than that?" Cloud jerked his head at whatever was making all the racket.

"Maybe." Zack nodded, sadly. "Don't underestimate the crazy shit Shinra's willing to develop."

"Never," Tifa vowed.

"Check out the crack." Cloud didn't sheath his sword as he walked over to the damaged wall. He didn't go into it, but just peered through the 2-metre-long gash. "I see light. More blue than this one." he added.

"Could be how they know which section they're in," Tifa suggested.

"Think I hear people, too."

"I'll go first. Be ready with healing," Zack said cheerfully, but Tifa noticed that he took a breath before heading in. Aerith hummed in disapproval and cast Barrier on her boyfriend. As he stepped into the darkness of the crack, the magic shimmered green, and then faded from view.

For such a big man, Zack Fair could step very quietly. Tifa could hardly hear him moving over the dirt and rubble. She only knew where he was because he blocked the light from the other side.

"Me next," she said, and stepped into darkness. The light from far corridor lined the stones with blue shimmering shadows. It made it hard for her to judge where the obstacles were. As long as she kept her eyes down, she saw enough to not trip. Behind her, she heard first Aerith and then Cloud start the trek.

Zack was already in the corridor, big buster sword out and ready.

"Anything?" she asked.

"Those people Cloud heard are to the right of here."

Tifa sighed. "Is approaching anyone down here _really_ a good idea?"

Aerith stepped out. "People often have answers, she said.

Zack shrugged. "My instinct says so?"

Cloud stepped out of the crack. "Your instinct usually tells you to run _towards_ monsters," he pointed out. "However, I'm as lost as balls on a doe, so whatever."

Zack stopped to stare at him. "Balls on a doe?" he repeated. "That's worse than 'scaley dragon tits'. Where the fuck do you get these from?"

"I think they're cute," Aerith said. Of course, she did. Zack gave her a fond look.

To Tifa's surprise, Cloud was blushing. "Cloud?"

He sighed. "Walk and talk?" He started down the right passage, and everyone hurried to take up position. "I come from a small town; nobody swears where a woman will hear, yah?"

Tifa nods. "It was considered very vulgar," she tells the others.

Cloud continued, "In Midgar, everybody swears. Even the women."

"Hells yeah!" Tifa said with a smile.

"I don't" Aerith pointed out.

Cloud ignored them. "Lots of small-town kids in the cadets when I joined. They all started swearing more than the locals to prove they weren't country anymore." He shrugged. "Wanted to be different so decided to, dunno, play it up."

"So Nibelheimers don't go around saying 'wolf nuts' and 'goat balls'?" Zack asked.

Tifa shook her head. "Not that I ever heard."

"Scaly dragon tits?" Aerith asked in an oh-so-very-innocent tone that had to be fake.

"Made up," Cloud confirmed. Zack burst out laughing, and even Cloud smiled.

By this time, corridor had curved enough that their entry point was out of sight, and maybe laughing wasn't the smartest move when sneaking around one of Shinra's secret labs, but nothing could have prepared them for the sound of cackling laughter joining them.

"What the fuck?" Zack said, instantly on guard. Aerith recast Barrier on him and then cast it on Tifa. Whoever it was laughed some more. A terrified scream followed. Zack didn't move.

"What are we waiting for?" Tifa whispered to him.

"I was thinking that if that's one of Shinra's scientists, we should let them experience the full glory of dealing with one of their fucking experiments."

"You mean let it kill them." Tifa couldn't keep the disapproval out of her voice.

His eyebrows went up. "You were going to blow up a reactor."

"We weren't going to _kill_ anybody."

Fair just laughed – softly. "How about workers in the reactor? Or people under the plate who could've had huge pieces of it fall on them? Don't they count?"

Tifa wanted to respond, but honestly? They hadn't really considered any of that. "Nobody lives in Sector 1's ground floor.

"There're people there," Cloud said. "Not a lot, but they eke out a living."

Aerith leaned forward between them. "If it's a scientist, we might want to question them."

Fair finally nodded. "Fine. Let's go rescue the scuzzball." Then he strode down the corridor as if he were the only one in it.

"Drama much," Tifa muttered reflexively, but she followed.

The corridor directly ahead of them was clear, but there was a large open door to the left. As they got closer, she could hear the laughing voice speaking. It was a woman with a thick accent that Tifa didn't recognize. "Try again, fool. _Where_ _is_ _the professor?!_ "

Whatever her target might have said in response was lost when Zack walked up to the door and said, "Hi there. We're lost. Think you can help?"

"Goat's balls," Tifa muttered and charged in after him.

The room was large but cramped. There was a small table with a cheap folding chair just to the left. A small fridge and food warmer next to it. The rest of the room had metal shelving filled with bottles of steel polish and window cleaner. boxes of light bulbs, and mops and brooms still in their plastic wraps. It was the janitor's break-slash-supply room. Currently, there were two people in it. One, the obvious target, was a slim, dark-haired man with a tidy beard and shallow cuts all over his torso. The other, likely the source of both the cackling laughter and the shallow cuts was… Dramatic, was an understatement.

Tifa's first impression was she was all red, but actually her outfit consisted of a black top almost like a corset but with red sleeves. From the back a long red fur train dragged on the floor. She had elbow-length articulated steel gloves and thigh-high boots that Tifa kinda liked, but there was a weird blue glow outlining the pieces of her costume that seemed out of place.

"Who are you?" The woman's voice was flat.

"I'm Zack, and you are?" Tifa knew Zack was smiling. She also knew it wasn't working. As much as possible, Tifa moved away from him trying to give them both room to move.

The woman flicked her fingers at Zack. "Go away, raggedy man, before I decide to kill you for sport."

"Can't," Zack said soft and friendly. "Like I said, we're lost, and I figure that poor guy you're torturing knows the way out."

Finally, she turned to face Zack fully. She gave him a long look, down then up, sneering at his garish clothing. "You think you can stop me, raggedy man? Me? Rosso the Crimson!

"The Crimson?" Zack laughed. "Are you a fan of Genesis or something?"

"Genesis. That weakling!" she spat. "I do not understand why Hojo brought him to us." Zack froze and Tifa went on high alert.

"Genesis is one of you?" His tone was far more serious than it had been up to now, but Rosso didn't notice.

"He is _not_ of us! He is not Tsviet!" She lifted her chin. "He was brought to us mere months ago. Spouting that poem as if it makes him profound instead of weak."

"Well, scaly dragon tits! That's Genesis all right," Zack said lightly. He balanced lightly on his toes, ready to move. Tifa could see Aerith and Cloud standing behind him in the corridor waiting for the signal. Tifa couldn't help bouncing a little at the tension. She let it build up her chi.

The guy Rosso'd been tormenting slowly dropped to the floor and quietly crawled under the table. Smart guy.

"Hojo says he is key to the formula, but all he does is gloat," she said.

Zack nodded. "Fucking Hojo, man. I swear I'm going to kill him first chance I get."

"No!" Rosso stepped towards him. She was nearly the same height. "Weiss is dying. The professor must be brought to Weiss alive. He must save Weiss. That is all that is important."

"I don't suppose you'd take me to Genesis?" Zack opened his eyes wide, pleading.

Rosso sneered. "You are not nearly as cute as you think you are. And since you cannot or _will_ not help me. I think it is time for you to die."

A wide, double-bladed bow-shaped weapon appeared in her left hand, but their side was already moving.

Cloud cast Slow on her and Tifa saw the heavy fog seep into Rosso's body. Aerith had her fancy battle flower up so when she cast Lightning, Rosso was hit twice. Zack swung his buster.

They'd linked up the Double Cut materia with Sneak Attack and it finally kinda worked. Rosso didn't have a chance to block the first swing, but she blocked the second with her heavy bow-like weapon. Sword and bow scraped along each other causing sparks.

Tifa broke up their showdown with a whirling uppercut. Rosso flew up into the ceiling, hitting the metal panels with a crash. The woman twisted as she fell, landing in a crouch. Her right hand touched the floor but her left still held her weapon. "Fools! The Deepground soldiers were _bred_ to kill. I, Rosso, bathed in the blood of a _hundred soldiers_! I _reveled_ in it."

The guy under the table sprayed her in the face with heavy-duty cleaning fluid.

Rosso shrieked and grabbed at her eyes with her free hand. Zack cut off her head.

"Why is her blood purple?" It was an asinine question, but there was a lot of it, and it didn't look normal.

"I'd say it was maroon," Aerith said lightly, but she was already kneeling next to a pool of it, hand out, trying to sense what Rosso had been made of. She didn't even get very close before jerking her hand away.

"Was she talking about Genesis Rhapsodos?" Cloud asked from the doorway. "SOLDIER First Class, dead since year 1, Genesis Rhapsodos?"

Zack looked up from where he was examining the edge of his buster sword and made an unhappy affirmative noise. "She said he was quoting poetry. One'll get you ten that it's _Loveless_." He went back to his blade, running his fingers along its surface. He must've found something wrong because he swore. "Wear, tear and rust. _Dammit!_ "

Tifa ignored Zack and gave the guy under the table a friendly smile. "Hi."

"He just cut off her head," the guy under the table said. He was still staring at the body as if waiting for it to get back up.

Tifa nodded. "Yah, he really did."

"He really did that?" Cloud said to Zack. "Thought that was, dunno, a publicity thing."

"Ready to come out of there?" Tifa asked the guy.

Zack gave an unhappy laugh. "No, Genesis really did read it all the time. Knew it by heart and would quote it instead of answering a simple fucking question."

"So, we going to rescue him." Cloud said it as a statement and Tifa stopped trying to coax the janitor out from under the table.

"You don't want to go down there," the janitor said.

Zack looked down at the guy. "You know where Genesis is?"

"No! Not exactly" The guy waved his hand furiously, trying to erase what he'd just said. "It's Deepground. They're all fanatics and seriously enhanced and outsiders aren't welcome down there."

"You know where the entrance is, though. Right?" Fair's bright eyes were calculating, though the poor janitor probably just saw the smile.

"Well, yeah. I go past it on my rounds."

Fair's smile widened. He held out a hand. "Hiya! I'm Zack. That's Tifa–" He nodded at her, before jerking a thumb behind him. "Aerith and Cloud."

The guy took Fair's hand and was hauled to his feet. "Baz. I'm just the custodian."

"That's okay, Baz," Fair said. "We're not going to kill you."

"Yeah, well," Baz said with a resigned sigh. "If you don't the experiments will. Half the cages were damaged in the explosion, and I'm not a fighter."

"Dunno," Tifa said. "Was pretty quick thinking with the spray bottle." She gave him an encouraging smile, but Baz didn't look encouraged.

Cloud cast Fira on Rosso's body. "Got any ethers?" he asked.

Baz blinked. "Jeff usually has a couple in his locker. He smuggles them out and sells them on the black market."

Tifa got him to show her Jeff's locker while Cloud cast another Fira on the rest of the body. It filled the large room with the horrible smell of overcooked meat and blood.

Zack, who'd been keeping watch on the corridor, called out. "More escapees coming our way," and whatever break they'd been having was over.

.o0|0o.

Once the shaking stopped, Wedge looked around the pie-shaped area where he'd sheltered from the falling buildings. He'd managed to pull five cats and one small dog in with him. More had joined as the shaking went on, but none of them were leaving now that it had stopped.

It made him wonder if there was going to be _more_ quakes, so he waited, cross-legged in his corner, petting at least three animals at once. (Like darts, it was a skill he'd practiced. A lot.)

He wondered if Biggs was okay. And Jesse. And Barret, of course. Marlene was so small, but she should be safe at Seventh Heaven with Tifa. It was a strong building. He ran through the list of people he cared about (there were a lot), before deciding that he'd only find out if everyone was okay by actually going out.

"I have to go now," he said to a grey tabby he'd only seen from a distance before. It just blinked its large, yellow eyes at him.

"I'll be back, though," he told the long-haired, stubby tailed one that was missing a part of its ear.

"I'll bring food," he assured the puppy, who was being groomed by Elfadunk, a huge, blue-haired matron who ruled Wedge's usual crew.

Then he gently removed the cats from his lap and shoulder, placing them close to Elfa, who licked them automatically.

He had to shimmy a little to get through the narrow opening, and then he had to push aside a piece of corrugated tin roofing that had sliced into the ground just outside. Some dirt fell off it but shifting it didn't cause a landslide so that's what mattered, right?

His little alcove now had a noticeable downward slope towards the entrance.

"That's probably not good," he said. Three different pairs of eyes blinked at him but didn't leave their safe spots. He didn't try to lure them out, either. His target right now, was his two-footed friends.

First stop: Seventh Heaven.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays, everyone. May your celebrations be joyous, and may your families and loved ones be healthy.


	17. Shinra's Deep Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinra's inability to build in a straight line hampers the team's attempt to be quick and efficient, but it gives them a chance to talk about Tseng's offer, the future, and a bunch of other things that they might have avoided otherwise.

After dealing with Rosso and some more hounds, there'd been huge gorgers not unlike the venowhatsits in the Sector 5 graveyard. Cloud had them scanned in his Assess materia, so the four of them had made short work of those. As monsters, they were 100 percent natural, so when Aerith said to let them dissolve into the Lifestream, Zack just shrugged.

They'd talked about the Lifestream in SOLDIER, of course, but the common attitude was that it was at worst superstition, and at best religion, and either way, it had no place in a science-based institution like Shinra.

Meeting Aerith had started him rethinking those ideas, but more in the vein of 'why not' than actual belief. After a month on the ground floor, talking with the people who lived in shacks but still made them home, he had a deeper appreciation for what the Lifestream _could_ be.

He still didn't believe in Roman Shinra's version of the Promised Land, but he was willing to believe in Cloud and Aerith's.

Hopefully, none of them would find out for themselves during this little jaunt!

With Baz the Custodian leading from the middle, (carrying a broom handle as a weapon) they reached the elevator to Deepground with no wrong turns. It was a big freight one, with ugly metal doors and a frame painted yellow and black. The button lit up when he pushed it, so hopefully it was working.

After that, it was just getting Baz to the closest staircase out of here.

Again, Baz led from the middle. He told them to go right at the next T-intersection, but some sahagins were marching around the hallway looking like tall, angry lizards. Since there was a huge, dripping hole above their heads, and they occasionally tried to jump back up into it, Zack figured they'd fallen through from a different tunnel system. Too bad they weren't sentient; he'd've offered to toss them back up where they wanted to be.

Instead, as soon as one noticed their presence, the fight was on.

It wasn't fun – they hadn't asked to be dropped down into one of Shinra's Evil Labs, so killing them just seemed kind of pointless.

Plus, Tifa got turned into a frog, which didn't make her happy. At all.

While they waited for her to revert, they looked up at the hole the sahagins had dropped from. Considering the smell, Zack figured it was a sewer system.

They stood away from the drips, looking up. "We could throw Baz up there," Aerith suggested.

"Why would you do that?" Baz asked.

She said, "Might be safer up there than with us."

"Oh, _hells_ no," he said, horrified. He clutched his broom handle tight, ready to poke it at anybody who tried to grab him.

Zack had to laugh. "We're not going to chuck you anywhere." He gave the guy a friendly shoulder pat that made him rock.

Tifa popped back up to her full size, which was still kind of tiny. " _That_ was _horrible!_ I feel _slimy._ "

"At least there weren't any bugs for you to eat," Zack said cheerfully. He'd swallowed his share of insects while in frog form. It didn't kill you, but everyone he'd ever told that to had made interesting retching noises.

Tifa was no different.

With a laugh, Zack started up the corridor. The rest followed in the same order they'd established since leaving the break room: Zack and Tifa in front (giving him evil looks), Aerith and Baz in the middle, and Cloud guarding their rear.

It was oddly wonderful how well they'd clicked as a team.

Most of Zack's missions as SOLDIER had been solo. He'd been dropped off wherever, done the job. Then he'd get picked up and flown back to Midgar. The few times he'd been assigned a team, they'd been random infantry from the roster – it was how he'd met Cloud so many years ago.

That meant this was the first time he'd spent so much time fighting with the same group since the war, and he kinda liked it. Except for Baz, he didn't really have to worry about protecting anyone.

Well, he still _worried_ , but not like before. It was nice. He bounced a little as he walked.

Behind him he heard Cloud ask Baz how he'd ended up in the secret sub-sub-basement. "No offense," Cloud said, "Don't seem the type to volunteer for evil lab clean up."

Baz waved at him. "No, that's…" Baz smiled. "It's actually a really nice thing to say. Thanks."

"No problem," Cloud said.

"Yeah, so. I got hired last month," Baz said as they continued along the corridor. It had a gentle slope down and a sharpish curve, which meant Zack had no bloody clue what was waiting for them ahead. "It was a good job, right? Decent pay, and you know, some bennies."

"Shinra offers benefits?" Tifa's voice said she didn't believe it, but Baz was nodding when Zack looked back.

"They're not great, but better than what I was getting at my last job."

There was a knocking sound, and everybody stopped. Zack inched to the right to check if the angle let him see anything. Nope.

The sound faded.

They resumed walking.

"You got hired a month ago," Aerith prodded.

"Yeah, well. Umm. To celebrate my first cheque, I went to this, uh, place in Sector 8."

"Goblin Bar?" Zack asked. It was where everyone he'd known in Shinra's military went to celebrate anything.

"Aahh. No. It was a place off of Loveless Avenue. You probably wouldn't know it."

"The Roost?" Cloud asked.

"You… You know The Roost?" Baz sounded surprised.

Zack looked back in time to see Cloud nod. "Been a time or two." Baz gave Cloud a long glance toe-to-top that Zack suspected was filled with speculation on what Cloud would look like without his clothes.

Zack caught his friend's eye and winked. Cloud raised an eyebrow and smirked – just a little.

Beside him, Tifa turned away abruptly. She was blushing and frowning, and it occurred to Zack that Tifa had also grown up in Nibelheim. A town small enough, and (according to Cloud) conservative enough, that it had had no words for people who weren't heterosexual.

He'd have thought a few years in lower Midgar would've cured Tifa of that awkwardness, but maybe it was harder for her to shake the small-town prejudice because she was fonder of her hometown than Cloud was. She hadn't rejected its values in the same way.

On the other hand, Zack had come from a small town too, and the various sexualities of people he'd encountered didn't bother him in the slightest. In fact, he'd been around enough sexy men to know he was only straight because Aerith was a girl. If she'd been a guy, he'd be as bent as a safety pin.

He reached a hand back blindly, wiggling his fingers at his girl. She gave them a squeeze.

"What happened at the bar?" Aerith asked.

"A lot of dancing," Baz said. "And maybe a little too much to drink. Enough that I didn't question when this mint bloke sat down beside me and started talking."

"Was he wearing a blue suit?" Zack asked,

"Uhh. No? Skin-tight jeans and a mesh top, actually."

Cloud snorted. "Definitely looking for some action."

Baz nodded. "Exactly. And he was _really_ good-looking, so I didn't question it. I mean…" He shrugged. "If only I'd been less pissed," he added sadly.

"Who was he?" Aerith asked.

Baz's sigh was loud. "Senior's husband looking for revenge on her for… " This time he rolled his eyes. "Goddess only knows. But he took pics of us… you know, _shagging_." He gave them embarrassed looks. "I don't actually remember him doing that, but she showed them to me."

They'd all stopped to look at Baz, but it was Aerith who spoke what Zack thought they were feeling. "He did _what?_ "

Tifa said. "Guy sounds a creep." Aerith nodded vigorous agreement.

"Maybe yeah? I mean, he picked me specifically because I was the new guy and didn't know who he was," Baz wailed. "And I _told_ her that, but she still stuck me down here."

"A creep _and_ a jerk," Tifa said.

"I'm really sorry that he did that to you." Aerith added.

"Sounds like a massive dick," was Cloud's contribution.

"It _was_ a huge dick. I mean…" He held his hands out to illustrate. "I totally see why she doesn't want to share," he added mournfully. Zack laughed out loud and Aerith giggled. Tifa, however, coughed and changed the subject.

"So, what can we expect in Deepground?"

"I have no idea," Baz said blankly. "I just put their deliveries in front of the elevator and then ring the buzzer, so they know there's gear waiting. I haven't gone down. I don't want to go down." He paused. "Yeah, no. I'm not going down this time either."

"No worries, Baz. You showed us the elevator. We'll escort you to a way out, and then we'll go back on our own."

It turned out Baz had a map. Hand-drawn, cheaply laminated and stapled together, but still: a map. They discovered this when the corridor they were following was blocked and even his and Tifa's joint Iron Fist couldn't break the jam.

"Well, frog balls," Zack said. "Do we need to go back?"

"Hold on," Baz said. "Let me check." And then he pulled out his little handmade booklet.

They all stared at it and him.

"What?" he said defensively. "The layout in this place is crazy. Absolutely barmy." Baz muttered other derogatory things about Shinra's architects while he found them a new route around the blockage.

"Can we borrow that?" Cloud asked when they reached the stairwell that Baz would take to get out (and they'd probably have to use later).

"Can I have your phone number?" Baz blushed as he asked. Tifa shifted, but kept her mouth shut when Cloud held his hand out for Baz's PHS.

"Might be busy for the next while," Cloud told the guy. "Probably pretty messed under the plate, but in a week or two?"

Baz's smile was huge. "Yeah, man. That'll be brilliant!"

They listened as his footsteps clanged steadily on the metal stairs. Nothing interrupted the rhythm.

Zack turned back to the group.

"Do we really need to do this?" Tifa asked.

Zack, who'd been about to sweep them all back down the corridor, stopped. Did they need to do this? He didn't actually owe Genesis anything. Considering how often the nutjob had tried to kill him, and how he'd pulled Angeal into the crazy – and helped push Sephiroth over the edge – Genesis probably owed _Zack_. Like, a _lot_.

However, Shinra's secret projects had a way of reappearing in extremely deadly ways.

He sighed.

"If Deepground _is_ a Hojo project, and Rosso had no reason to lie about that, then I think we have to," He said finally. "G-cells – the kind used in Genesis - allow for cloning. It's how Genesis made his army. I don't think we want Hojo developing an army of enhanced clones."

Cloud nodded. "She said the plan was to destroy the world."

"Rule the world," Tifa said.

Cloud looked at her. "Think they'll be any better than Shinra?"

That made the fighter frown. "No."

"Then we go," Aerith said, and she started walking back the way they'd come.

They ran into very little on the return journey A group of floating fish no one had ever seen before were underneath the sewer opening. They spat bubbles that Aerith didn't dodge fast enough. She fell asleep on her feet. Since she had the Cleansing materia they had to wait until she woke up naturally.

When they got back to the elevator the button was still lit but the car didn't seem to have arrived. It occurred to Zack that it probably wasn't working. And even it it was working it would be a box they'd be trapped in the whole way down.

"The lights are on emergency power," he said. "If I remember right, elevators return to ground when that happens."

"Pry open the doors and climb down?" Cloud suggested.

Tifa rolled her eyes. "Or find stairs. Rosso had to've got up somehow."

"Less likely to be monsters in the elevator shaft," Cloud said.

"Less able to fight if there are," she countered.

Aerith broke into their brewing argument. "Rosso was upset. If she took stairs, she would've taken the shortest path from them to the break room."

"There was that T-junction, two turns after the break room" Tifa said. "We turned right."

Zack nodded, trusting her memory in this freaking labyrinth. He dug out the map and gave it to her. "You're in the lead."

The return trip didn't take that long even with the stupid layout. They turned away from Baz's room into the hall they'd ignored before. Zack knew Aerith's theory was correct when they came across the blood, and a lab coat sliced nearly in half.

"That slice matches Rosso's gun blade," Zack said. He'd taken a good look at if before they'd left. He needed to know what kind of metal could damage Angeal's Galatine the way hers had. He'd suggested Aerith try using it as a staff, but she'd scrunched her nose and shook her head. Nobody touched it after that.

Looking at the blood on the wall, Tifa swallowed. "Guess we're on the right path then." Resolutely she turned away from the mess and continued down the corridor.

They found the remains of a SOLDIER next. "That's a second-class uniform," Zack told them.

There were no badges on SOLDIER uniforms. The only way to ID a SOLDIER's body was through the sword.

Zack braced himself, and then bent down to look at it.

It wasn't one Zack recognized and he let out a breath of relief.

He hadn't responded to any of Kunsel's messages since getting his PHS. Even though his old friend knew he was still alive and living in lower Midgar (Kunsel had sent him pictures from his revived fan club, of all things.) He hadn't responded because he felt… conflicted.

Kunsel had always known everything that was going on in and out of Shinra HQ. Had he known Zack wasn't dead?

His messages hinted that he'd known, but he hadn't _done_ anything to help Zack. Why not? Their friendship wasn't worth the risk?

Tseng, at least, had been protecting his Turks. What was Kunsel's excuse?

Zack didn't want to think about Kunsel and divided loyalties, so he picked up the SOLDIER's sword. It was a large weapon, only slightly smaller than the buster. The blade flared wide with the characters for cutting all ties – literally, cutting in two with a single stroke – carved into the tip. There was also a name etched near the hilt: Hardedge. It could've been the dead SOLDIER's nickname, but it was probably the weapon's.

Zack flipped it in his hand a couple times. The balance was good. A little heavier than he was used to, but manageable. This would work until he could get Angeal's sword fixed.

Zack started swapping over his materia. He was quick because he'd practiced. Handling natural materia was more a mental thing than the manufactured balls he'd worked with five years ago. With those, their sizes didn't change much. They were just balls of hardened mako.

Natural materia, however, could expand or contract like a balloon. A thought could make natural materia contract into a ball small enough to fit in Tifa's glove slots, or expand to fit Barret's gun‑arm. It made the materia he had easy to remove from Galatine. He just 'thought' at the balls to shrink them. Then another thought to expand them to fit in the new slot. And always that warm 'hey, I'm here' feeling when he manipulated it.

It made a lot more sense if he believed materia was solidified Lifestream – he was literally talking to dead people.

Tifa cleared her throat. "You're just going to take the sword?"

"Yeah." Zack didn't bother looking up from what he was doing. "It's in better shape than mine."

Hardedge had an extra slot, but Zack left it unfilled. He was already pretty close to the maximum he could use. More and he risked exhaustion.

"Oh. I suppose…"

Cloud looked at his friend. "You wanted to blow up a reactor two weeks ago, but Zack can't take a sword from a dead Shinra SOLDIER?"

Tifa blushed a little and shifted. "It's different."

"Because he's already dead?"

"I keep saying, we weren't planning on killing anyone." Tifa's scowl was ferocious.

Cloud was unmoved. "Explosions, especially around mako, are hard to control. Even experts get it wrong, and none of you are experts."

"We'd thought of that." She tipped up her chin.

"If you _had_ done it," he went on. "And people died from it, would you feel okay 'because you hadn't planned on killing anyone'? Or would you eat yourself up with guilt?" Tifa looked away. He put his hand on her arm. "If we agree to Zack's thing, maybe… Maybe we waive the ten million gil fee in exchange for Shinra researching better energy sources."

Aerith clapped her hands under her chin. "Oh! I like that idea!"

Tifa was looking up at Cloud. "But you're a mercenary."

Cloud laughed. "I'm a mercenary because I don't want anyone giving me orders. I take the jobs I want, work with people I like." He gave her a nudge. "And I can pick how I get paid."

"Chickens and potions, right?" Zack said with a smile. He swished Hardedge through the air, getting used to the feel of it.

Cloud smiled back. "That's right."

Tifa looked at both of them thoughtfully. Her gaze stopped on Zack. "Would you be okay giving up your share of ten million gil?" she asked him

There was a certain amount of belligerence in her voice that Zack chose to ignore. After all, she was being asked to change her life plan. A plan she'd had for several years. Same thing as Zack was doing, so he knew it wasn't easy.

"I only said that to see if they'd go for it. I kind of expected an immediate no," Zack replied. "If we do decide to barter our fee, I think we should do it _after_. Let them sweat about the money. That way they'll be so happy when we change our demands that they won't realize that the research will actually cost more."

"You think it'll cost more?" Tifa asked.

"Oh yeah," he scoffed. "Think of all the infrastructure that's geared to mako power. All the vehicles and equipment that use mako batteries – the powerlines. All built by Shinra in mako powered factories. We'd be asking them to redesign practically everything."

"I… I hadn't thought of that," she said quietly.

"Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea," he said. "But it's not going to be quick and it's not going to be easy."

"Well, obviously that means they should start right away," Aerith chimed in. "Faster you start, quicker you finish!"

Zack smiled down at her. "Exactly! Speaking of – let's find that staircase." He looked up in time to catch Cloud's nod. Tifa was still frowning in thought, but she still moved up beside him. "Which way, Tifa?"

She jerked her chin up the lonely corridor. "Only one way."

They went through two turns and found one dead end before they found the way down. They knew it was the right one because the door had been torn off its hinges. They ran into a couple more creatures that Aerith insisted they burn. She was getting better at sensing the taint without having to bend down.

Zack could see a very awkward conversation in his future.

If the taint _was_ Jenova cells, then what could Aerith sense from him?

Sure, Shinra had said that SOLDIERs were made with mako, but even if that was true (which is might not be), Zack had spent three years getting injected with all sorts of shit by Hojo. Jenova was Hojo's pet project and she'd been _right there_ , in Nibelheim. No way Zack hadn't been given some of her poison.

Aerith's hand landed on his shoulder and squeezed. Zack sighed and set that worry aside for now.

Inside the stairwell, the lights were even dimmer, but it was easy to see that the stairs were made from the same sturdy metal that was used all over Shinra Tower's back areas. More evidence (that they didn't need) that this was a Shinra lab.

There were no stairs going up.

There were a lot of stairs going down. Like, _a lot_.

Once they were at the bottom there'd be no quick or easy way to escape if this went fubar.

What the hells was he thinking, taking his friends down there – taking _Aerith_?

He whirled around to face them. "So, I, uh… I just want to say that… You don't have to do this," he blurted out. "You don't owe Genesis anything. I mean, _I_ probably don't owe him anything, but –" He waved that away. "What I mean is-"

"You're being noble again," Cloud interrupted.

"Stupidly noble," Aerith added with a frown.

Tifa had her hands on her hips. "Already agreed this was important."

Cloud leaned forward and mock-whispered to the two women, "SOLDIER honour thing Angeal Hewley drilled into him." Neither Aerith nor Tifa looked persuaded. Cloud looked up at Zack with a little smile. "Wasting time."

Zack felt… swollen. Like there was this bubble of emotions rising from his belly to his chest and throat. It made it hard to breathe or speak, and his eyes felt hot. He knew what this was, and he blinked and cleared his throat and scrubbed his hands through his hair to push the emotions down. He'd deal with them later, when they weren't heading into untold, unknown danger.

"Thanks," he croaked.

Tifa punched his shoulder as she walked past. "Last one down's a rotten egg," and she was off.

.o0|0o.

Sephiroth was alive.

It was unexpected – no, not unexpected. That would mean he hadn't planned for something like this, and he had. Not thoroughly, but enough. Really, all he had to do was tweak his original plan. It would still work.

He had to laugh. Sephiroth was _alive!_

He'd been right all these years when he'd protested that a fall into simple mako wouldn't kill his greatest creation. If anything, it had made Sephiroth even more powerful.

The board was made up of fools! Short-sighted, venal fools who barely understood the power that Shinra had tapped into!

Gast may have had a higher IQ, but he hadn't been _smarter_. Gast, after all, hadn't understood the gift they'd been given, but _he_ had.

From the moment he'd touched her, he'd understood.

Decades ago, he'd realized what Jenova could do for him – how he could use her to be more than these petty idiots would ever know. He would become a god, _her_ god, and together they'd travel the stars!

To do that, they needed Sephiroth, and so it stood to reason that Jenova would not let him die because of the planet's petty lifestream. But he hadn't been able to explain that to the board when he insisted that Sephiroth wasn't dead, so they'd all decided he was mad.

He had nearly given up hope that Sephiroth would return in a reasonable time – Hojo could admit he suffered the flaw of impatience, but it was a minor flaw, easily compensated for. It was unfortunate that he'd needed Sephiroth to have brains because they'd made him recalcitrant as he'd aged. A mindless automaton would've been easier.

He'd hoped Specimen Z… But no. The SOLDIER treatment had given Z a limited immunity to the most important aspects of the treatments Hojo had used on Sephiroth, and his _personality_ …!

No matter. Specimen Z was no longer important.

He would continue with his plans for Deepground, started when Sephiroth had turned away from his guidance and towards those two inferior specimens.

However, it was fiddly. Unlike the quest for a perfect soldier which had had the backing of the whole board, only the president knew of Deepground's primary purpose. That meant limited technical support, which further meant there were too many ways it could go wrong.

Like this.

His backup had…. Well, it had been interrupted due the explosion in the Deepground reactor. He needed a stable neural connection to Deepground's matrix to continue his upload.

It had been at least two hours and he was still without a _stable connection_.

Considering President Shinra had planned to blow up one of the city's normal reactors, it was taking Scarlet far too long to fix this problem.

Hardly surprising. The woman could barely design a cat's cradle let alone something as complex as a power grid. Honestly, they needed Tuesti on repairs.

Now _he_ had a brain worth admiring. Unfortunate that his morals got in the way of any greater use of it. Perhaps he should've made Tuesti into one of his experiments….

The red light above Hojo's head started flashing, interrupting his thoughts. A worn recording played "Warning. Security breach in … ' _Third Ward'_. … ' _Escaped experiments_ ' … reported. Staff are to … ' _barricade themselves in a secure room_ ' … until the situation is resolved." Then the message repeated.

Hojo had to think for a moment. What experiment was he running in the Third Ward?

Ah yes! The zenenes. Very powerful but untameable. Perhaps some more genetic material from hounds? But if he added more hound nucleotides, then the zenenes might lose their special abilities and that would make them essentially worthless as killing machines.

He could always add cells from the Red XIII sample, but it was hardly more tractable than the zenenes. Still, it had a form of sentience which could be useful. It was always good to know your tools understood your orders.

Or perhaps he should grab some from Tuesti, the proselytizing fool. He did have a good brain…

That was for later, however. For now, he'd let SOLDIER dispatch the escaped experiments and then start fresh. He still had some base embryos to play with. He would bring those beasts to heel one way or another.

Until then, he needed to continue the upload of his brain patterns into Deepgound's matrix.

With Sephiroth returned, progress would finally commence on freeing Jenova from the planet, and he needed to be done with his backup in case Sephiroth failed.

Unlikely as that should be.

But the boy _had_ let himself be defeated by a mere infantryman.

Besides, Hojo enjoyed having plans with plans within plans.

Hojo's hands hovered over the controls. The screen flickered, then went dark.

There was a growl from the hallway behind him. Another escaped experiment.

"Primary power interrupted," announced the automated system. "Back up systems unstable. Initiating full lock down."

The security door clanged shut leaving Hojo alone in the blackness.

Yes, Hojo thought. It was definitely time to leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my New Year's Eve, I watched Wonder Woman 84 with a friend. 
> 
> Remember that comedian who joked about a gauge of when women have achieved equality in Hollywood will be when a bad [female] superhero movie gets a sequel anyway? Yeah. WW84 just might be that test case. I could talk about the CGI and the logic (chasms) holes, but mostly, it wasn't actually about Diana Prince. She was a side story in her own movie which was, like... why? I dunno. I'm glad we didn't pay full price to stream it.


	18. Go Down Swinging

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Down and down – into the deep, dark depths. It was exciting and scary, and Aerith didn't know what to expect, but she knew it wasn't gross kids' songs!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience. Start of the year at work slammed me and all I wanted to do was silly match-3 games. Plus, I completely rewrote a chapter and a half for, y'know, _reasons_.
> 
> I hope y'all had (or are still having) a great holiday season despite the RL situation.

At first, the descent had been kind of fun. She'd chased after Tifa, and Zack had chased after both of them. (Catching up easily by jumping over the rail to a lower floor – cheating, in fact.) But now? Now Aerith was starting to feel…. Not spooked, but… uncomfortable?

There were fourteen stairs per flight. Fourteen stairs, landing, turn, fourteen stairs, and their feet went tappity-taptap-tapap-tap in a constant but unsteady rhythm that echoed, just a little, in the enclosed space.

The lights were dim when they they weren't flickering. They didn't flicker often, but enough for Aerith to feel they could go out any second.

There'd been no windows. They'd passed no doors.

They had no way to get out.

Worse, the presence that had been with her for so long – the one she associated with the Planet – she couldn't feel it here.

They were deep, deep underground, buried in the earth, and Aerith could feel and hear nothing from it.

What was going on down here, that it could so completely drown the Planet out?

"You okay?" Cloud's voice was quiet. Zack and Tifa were nearly a full flight ahead of them, but as if sensing the question, Zack looked up at them.

Aerith's cheeks heated in embarrassment. "I'm fine," she said. Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Really. I just… There's no way out."

Cloud nodded, and Aerith thought she caught a small reassuring wave aimed at her boyfriend. "Deliberate," he said. "If all Deepground is enhanced like Rosso, then only SOLDIER is on equal footing, and even a SOLDIER First would tire before reaching the top."

"That's not actually comforting," she told Cloud.

"Truth often isn't."

Hard to argue with that one.

They'd caught up to Zack and Tifa because the two of them had stopped to wait.

"We could sing," Tifa suggested. "Break up the quiet."

Aerith gave her a rueful smile. "Wrong kind of noise."

Tifa shrugged. "I'd be happy with any sound that wasn't metal stairs." She rubbed her arms vigorously, as if chasing away a chill, but the stairwell wasn't cold.

"Doubt we'll have the element of surprise at bottom, no matter what," Cloud added.

Which is how they ended up singing the most _horrible_ songs!

Zack started with one about the worst quartermaster _ever_. He said he'd learned it from the troopers during the Wutai War. He _also_ said that everything he'd seen in camp made the song 100 percent accurate. Then Tifa taught them a song about black socks, and another one about green gobs of grossness that Cloud recognized. Finally, Cloud added another horrible song about eating _worms!_

What was it about Nibelheimers and eating nasty, nasty things?

Aerith sang the songs anyway.

Their voices were _terrible_ , but so cheerful that Aerith couldn't help but feel better. She hadn't had childhood friends. Both she and Elmyra had been too aware that she wasn't like other kids, but maybe this was what it would have been like?

When it was her turn, she had one song she'd learned from the kids at the orphanage. She led the others in singing a song that didn't end – literally. It was both the title and the content – over and over and _over_ ….

When they finally stopped (about three quarters the way down) Zack lifted her up in a one-armed hug (his other was holding his new sword) and whined about her never-ending song. He also gave her a kiss, so Aerith didn't think he was that unhappy.

"Better'n _99 Bottles of Beer_ ," Cloud said with a shrug.

"Gods, _yes!_ " Zack agreed. "I never understood how a group of adults would _willingly_ sing that stupid thing on long marches."

Cloud smirked. "Endurance challenge," he said. "Last one singing wins." Zack just groaned.

"Bet you won lots," Tifa said to Cloud. She was pulling ration bars out of her pack and handing them out. Zack traded her a full canteen.

Cloud shook his head. "Boring song. Plus, was usually stationed in Junon. No long marches."

"How'd you end up with me on the Modeoheim mission then?" Zack asked. He was determinedly chewing the ration bar. When Aerith bit into hers, she understood. It was a lot more like a brick of sawdust than food. She held out her hand for the canteen.

"They were assembling the test squad. For Hojo." All lightness was gone from Cloud's voice. "Dannison – the other trooper – was there too. Mother'd worked at a reactor when she was pregnant. There were leaks, but Shinra didn't tell anyone."

"Did he recover?" Zack asked. "From Hojo's…"

Cloud shook his head. Then changed it to a shrug. "Wasn't next to me when I woke up. Rumour was he'd been taken for more intensive medical treatments, but no one would tell me where."

Zack's eyes widened. "Wait a minute – medical treatments. Medical and Deepground, why do those sound familiar together?" Aerith watched as he paced away from them all and started doing squats. There was barely enough room for him to move while carrying not one, but _two_ large swords, but someone he managed it. Years of practice, Aerith imagined.

"How can he be doing _squats?_ " Tifa asked. "After all those _stairs?_ "

"It's how I think," Zack responded.

"Knew it. Brain's in your ass," Cloud said with a sly smile."

"It's a great ass," Zack shot back.

"It really is," Aerith sighed in support. Zack grinned at her, even as his cheeks went pink. Aerith hoped he never fully lost that. If he ever started taking her little comments for granted, well… It wouldn't be half as rewarding to say them.

He straightened and stopped. "I've heard of Deepground before, or Deep-something. New Ground?" He shook his head. "I can't place it. But it was something to do with medical… stuff?"

"More of Hojo's muttering?" Cloud suggested?

Zack made a face. "Probably."

"Imagine we'll find out." Cloud stood up and brushed off his pants. "Ready to go?" He looked around at all of them as if gauging their reserves. Aerith felt pretty good, all things considered. The short break had helped, and the singing. And picturing Zack's butt!

"Good to go!" she said happily, and they all formed up in their accustomed positions and headed down. Their boots going tapat-tap-taptap on the metal.

They didn't sing. Instead, he and Tifa tried to make some kind of drum pattern with their steps, and then encouraged her and Cloud to join in. They only stopped when Zack said he could see the bottom.

She and Tifa both looked down, and then at each other. Aerith shrugged – she hadn't seen anything. Tifa shrugged back, so Aerith figured she hadn't seen it either. However, Cloud peered over the railing and backed Zack up.

There were only a few flights left by the time Aerith was absolutely sure she was seeing an end to the stairs – and maybe even a door out!

"Wait," Cloud said. They all obediently stopped. "Rosso came up these stairs. Maybe someone's waiting for her to come back down with Hojo."

"They'll be on the other side of the door," Zack agreed.

Cloud continued, "If they're enhanced, like SOLDIER, they've heard us already."

"Buff up now?" Aerith asked. Cloud nodded, and they all agreed it was a good idea. They also switched the order so that Aerith was at the absolute back of the line. She was the best at healing and if she went down, they might not get up.

She wasn't _happy_ about the change, but Aerith could admit it was logical.

Tifa and Zack slinked down the last flight, making hardly any noise. Cloud braced his sword and settled into his stance. He had Zack's big buster sword on his back, and he wasn't used to the weight.

Tifa shifted so she could open the door for Zack. They counted down silently. Zack lifted up onto his toes.

She pulled open the door and Zack burst out….

There was nothing.

No sounds of attack. No shouts of surprise.

Nothing.

Zack popped his head back in. "It's clear." He sounded puzzled.

One-by-one they trooped out of the staircase into the wide, yet mundane hallway that dead-ended at the staircase. It was darker here. The emergency lights were dim to uselessness.

"Maybe they're waiting farther up?" Zack suggested. He took back his buster sword and swung it onto his back. Aerith could almost hear his breath of relief as the weight settled.

"Can't hear anything," Cloud said, and they were all quiet and listening. All Aerith heard was the artificial sounds of a large building.

"Oh, look!" Tifa grabbed her arm and pointed a little way up the hall. "Toilets!"

Sure enough, two doors with flickering signs, broke up the bleak hallway about five metres farther along. And knowing that there were facilities within walking distance, Aerith suddenly felt pressure in her bladder. It _had_ been a long walk down.

"Hopefully they work," she said back.

Cloud tipped his head. "Need a lookout in the hall, but yah."

Zack nodded and they fell into their marching order.

"Fill up your canteens," Cloud said to them as she and Tifa pushed open the door. Aerith threw him a thumb's up, so he'd know she heard.

"It's kinda ordinary," Tifa said, looking at the plain white tiles and the plain steel stalls, the ordinary mirror and the industrial hand dryer. There was one light over the stalls, and it gave off a blue-white glow.

"You wanted monsters?" Aerith asked, sliding by the fighter and into a narrow stall.

She heard Tifa opening the door to the stall beside hers. "No, but… Secret underground lab. Should have spooky red lights at least."

"Something indicating it's evilness?' Aerith teased, because even she knew that's not how it worked. The most evil man she knew was Hojo, and he didn't think he was evil. In his own mind, he was just a scientist, expanding human knowledge in ways others were too weak to explore.

"Why didn't you punch Art in the nose?" she asked,

"Art?"

"The man bothering you when we arrived at the entrance to Scrap Boulevard." Art hadn't thought he was doing anything wrong either. "He was trying to intimidate you, and you didn't stop him. Why?" The toilet flushed automatically when she stood up, so at least she didn't have to fumble around for a handle.

The stall was so small that it took some manoeuvring to open the door without stepping on the toilet seat, but she did it.

Tifa followed her moments later. She was frowning and Aerith let her think while she washed her hands. She pulled a handkerchief from Marlene's backpack and dampened it. She wiped off some of the sweat and dirt she'd acquired. The damp cloth felt nice on her face and neck.

She handed it to Tifa when she was done. "Well? I've seen you fight now, and you really _could_ have flattened him like a nail."

"It didn't occur to me," Tifa finally admitted.

"Why not," Aerith asked.

Tifa ran the cloth under the water. "Because it's not what nice girls do." She gave Aerith a quick glance as she spoke.

"Even though he wasn't being nice to you?"

"Was alright," Tifa said, finally lifting the cloth to her face.

"Tifa!" Aerith protested. "He was _bullying_ you. That's not alright."

Tifa gave her a quick shallow smile. "Wouldn't be a very good bartender if I made my customers uncomfortable."

Aerith hummed and watched as Tifa wouldn't look at her. Tifa wouldn't look at herself either. That's when Aerith realized she'd hit a sore spot. She waited, patient, until Tifa felt the need to speak."

"Plus, you know, 'get more bees with honey'."

"But he wasn't a bee you wanted to attract. At least, it didn't look that way." Again, Tifa flicked her a quick glance. "Tifa, you don't think… You don't think you _deserve_ to be treated that way, do you?" Aerith asked it gently because she didn't want to be cruel. That was Shinra's speciality.

Tifa kept her face down, washing the worst of the dirt off her legs. "Not like he was saying anything new."

Aerith snorted, a bad habit she'd picked up from Cloud. " _That_ is _not_ a good reason. It's quite an awful one in fact. You didn't pick your body, so there's no reason to let yourself be punished for having a great one."

Tifa blushed a little. "I don't think that." It was said quite firmly, so Aerith thought it might be true. So, what was the reason?

"You object quite loudly to Shinra's bullying," Aerith pointed out. She took the dirty cloth Tifa held out and placed it in the trash container. "Why was that guy different?"

That made Tifa pause. "Habit," she said in a voice of quiet surprise.

"From when?" Then it dawned on her: "Cloud said you were the town's sweetheart, back in Nibelheim. A princess."

Tifa's shoulders pulled up, and Aerith knew she'd nailed it.

Why would that be the issue, she wondered. In the stories, being a princess meant being given _all_ the things – wealth, lands, a handsome prince. On the other hand, they were always on display, judged by how pretty and well-behaved they were. Misbehaving princesses were punished by evil curses.

"There's always a lot of things princesses aren't supposed to do," Aerith said slowly. "Is that it?"

In the time it had taken Aerith to think it through, Tifa had dug out the canteens from her pack. She began filling them, concentrating on the simple task. Aerith took hers out of Marlene's bag and did the same. Tifa didn't have to respond, as long as she was thinking about it.

"My father loved me," Tifa finally said. "Had a piano brought from Mideel so I could learn to play. He let me take fighting lessons from Master Zangan." She stopped. "You have no idea how scandalized the town matrons were."

"But," Aerith prodded, keeping her tone supportive, no judgement.

"Wasn't allowed to be unhappy," Tifa said quietly. "After mother died, everyone expected him to remarry so I'd have a proper female influence. but I didn't want someone to replace her, so he didn't marry."

"Because of you?"

Tifa nodded. "Because of me."

There could've been other reasons, reasons a very young child wouldn't have heard or been told. They were unimportant, because knowing those reasons wouldn't change how Tifa felt _then_ which was what was affecting how she acted _now_.

"There were consequences," Aerith suggested.

Tifa capped the first canteen and started on the second. "It meant, I had to be fine. I had to be _better_ than fine."

"Why," she asked.

Tifa finally looked at herself in the mirror. "My behaviour couldn't reflect badly on him, because _I_ made him raise me alone." She gave an unhappy laugh. "Nibelheim's been gone for four years. No one's gonna take him to task about my behaviour. No one _can_." The last word was cut suspiciously short.

"You miss him," Aerith said.

Tifa blinked, and blinked some more. "Every day." She swiped at her eyes. "It's stupid. Was planning on leaving Midgar anyway. Kalm University first, then who knew? Hadn't told my father, but… That was my goal. He would've been devastated I was leaving him behind."

Guilt.

Aerith knew it was a powerful, and insidious, motivator. After all, _she_ had left her mother behind. Even knowing Ifalna would die alone, she had left.

"He let you take fighting lessons so you could protect yourself," she said.

" _Know_ that," Tifa snapped. "I just… It was just habit. Like I said." Tifa dropped the canteens back into their slots in her bag and stalked out. Aerith followed more slowly, to let Tifa get her composure back.

Really, it had been foolish of her to bring it up right now. They were deep in dangerous territory, and honestly, they didn't know each other _that_ well, but it had bugged Aerith. Tifa had let that man back her into the fence and it hadn't matched how Zack had described her – kick-ass and confident. It made sense now.

Aerith wondered if she did the same thing. Did she smile to ease her way out of uncomfortable discussions? Did she pretend to be happy when she wasn't?

She didn't think she did the latter, but she'd done the former a few times. There were a couple people in Sector 5 she really didn't like talking with, so she'd smile very brightly and invent an excuse to leave. Was that the same thing?

In the hall, both the men and Tifa were waiting for her. When he saw her, Zack's eyebrows went up. "Everything okay?"

Was she okay?

"Yes," she said. "On a sliding definition of okay."

Tifa fiddled with her new gloves, but Zack laughed and gave her a hug. Cloud smiled and nodded in understanding. "I did a quick reconnoiter up the hall. I _think_ I know which way to go at the first intersection."

"Well, then," she said. "Let's mosey!" For that, Zack gave her a kiss.

They organized themselves in marching order: Tifa and Zack in the lead. This time Cloud walked beside her. Made sense. Nothing was likely to come up from behind them considering it was a dead end.

They wandered long and identical metallic halls for what seemed like forever, but that Zack assured her was only about thirty minutes. They found a few offices, and as promised, ransacked them looking for any information on Deepground – what it was, who was backing it, what it was its purpose – but what they'd found was the custodian's supply closet/break room, which could be even better. As Baz had showed them, scientists and bureaucrats knew things, but custodians _went everywhere_.

There was a row of open lockers with a series of bright yellow coveralls. In the pockets of one of them, was a flip book of maps, each hand-drawn like the one Baz had had for the upstairs lab.

"Yessss," Tifa hissed in triumph. She flipped through a couple pages. "There are notes in here," she said. "Look: 'bad smell'; 'wear gloves'." They crowded around to look as she flipped the pages.

"'Avoid: flying guards shoot first'," Zack read. " _That's_ good to know." They all murmured their agreement.

Tifa flipped one more page and then stopped. "Specimen G holding area," she said.

"Fucking hells," Zack whispered.

"Can you figure out best way to get there from here?" Cloud asked.

Tifa nodded. "I'll need paper. And a pen," she said as she sat down at the table. They got her the items and let her get on with it, while they searched for anything else that could be of use.

Cloud booted the computer, but apparently it was passcoded. He searched the rest of the desk instead, working around Tifa in a way that could've been flirtatious if either one of them had bothered, but they didn't. It was kind of sad, actually. They could've made a nice couple.

Aerith stopped watching Tifa and Cloud and looked through the supply shelves for anything of interest. There were a couple of healing potions that she grabbed, but mostly it was light bulbs. "They have a lot of hazardous material suits," she said, moving out of the storage area.

Zack, who'd found a work schedule that covered scientists as well as custodians, grunted. "Hardly surprising if they're messing around with mako," he said. He looked up at them, letting the sheets flip closed. "I recognize a couple of the scientists from my time. They worked under Hollander. What the hells are Hollander's people doing on a Hojo project?"

Aerith had no clue.

"Genesis?" Cloud suggested, and Zack's face cleared in enlightenment.

"Why would that make a difference ?" Aerith asked.

"Because Genesis was a result of Project G – Hollander's project," he explained. "If they're using G-cells in Deepground, they'd want people who'd worked with them before." He gave a lop‑sided smile. "Though, one'll get you a hundred that they were forced on Hojo."

"Got it," Tifa said from the desk.

"Cool." Zack bounced a little. "I'm ready to get out of here."

"Hey!" said an unknown voice at the door. "Who're you?"

Less than a second later, the custodian was on the ground, knocked out, Sleeped, and Silenced. A couple seconds after that, he was tied up and put in recovery position on the top shelf at the very back of the room where there was very little light.

"Will he fall off?" Aerith asked.

"Only if he squirms," Zack answered cheerfully.

To give themselves a bit more time, Cloud carefully disconnected the panic button under the desk, and borrowed Aerith's Lightning to short out the computer terminal.

"That's a useful trick," Zack said, standing hands on hips to watch.

"Used to do it by accident," Cloud replied. "We ready?"

Tifa led, consulting her map every couple turns. By unspoken assent, they no longer searched the offices, but focused on their goal.

"We have to cross a main corridor," Tifa said.

"Good place for an ambush?" Zack asked.

Tifa nodded. "Big and open. Probably has cameras." She showed them what she figured was the best path – essentially keeping to the edges until they reached a narrower spot to cross. "Hopefully, won't be surrounded if we are attacked."

"Good idea," Zack agreed, and Aerith swapped her Ice for Barrier so she could use the linked All and cast it just once. Holding the Barrier materia, she could feel that it was more stable than it had been at the start of this messed up journey. She kind of felt the same way, like her magics were easier and more powerful. She wondered if the others felt the same.

"Zack in front," Cloud said. "Tifa next"

Tifa protested. "But–"

"Zack can block bullets."

"And I heal better."

"Plus, you can springboard off him and take out any aerial troops," Aerith added cheerily. She didn't like it when Zack got shot, but she'd fought beside him enough time to know that he did heal very fast.

Zack grinned. "Happy to be anybody's bouncy board."

"Say that when _I_ do it," Cloud muttered, and Zack laughed outright. He was practically vibrating in anticipation. He swished his new sword through the air.

"I'll protect our rear," Cloud finished.

And they moved out. Zack didn't bother trying to sneak. "If the cameras are working, they'll know at a glance we're up to no good. But if we act like we belong, it may take them a moment."

"Number one rule of getting away with stuff, is to act like you're not trying to," Aerith added, also strolling fake-casual along the edge of the large room.

"Experience?" Cloud asked.

"Hmm," she agreed, thinking of the times it had worked on the Turks watching her. She'd been a kid then, and they hadn't expected it which had helped. They were far harder to dodge now. Too bad none of them had been in the bar when it collapsed. Whatever else could be said about them, they _were_ effective fighters, and Aerith had a feeling they'd need that soon.

The main corridor they entered was easily twice as wide as the one they left – five metres, at least. It was metal and concrete, like the old one, but some effort had been made to give it features. It had fake columns sticking out from the wall at regular intervals, and there were three rows of glass blocks near the roof. Maybe at one time they'd would have all emitted light, but now it was only a few that glowed. Most of the light came from orangey-red strip lighting in the floor.

"Oh yeah," Tifa said softly. "This looks like an evil lair."

"Does it need to look like one?" Zack asked puzzled, while Aerith swallowed her giggles.

"Cameras up top," Cloud said quietly.

Everyone obediently looked up. Sure enough, mounted at the top of the fake columns, Aerith could see rectangular boxes with lenses, smaller yet somehow more menacing than the cameras mounted at the sector wall crossover points.

"Any way to tell if they're on?" She asked. She couldn't see a blinking light or anything.

"They're not moving," Zack said after a pause. But their moment of relief was short-lived when small sentry drones whooshed down the hall. They were cameras on tentacles, and they were flying.

There was no place to hide, so everyone was ready when the drones turned on them.

Aerith got off one Thundara cast before the machines shielded themselves. Zack's swings and Tifa's punches couldn't penetrate anymore. Each strike caused a gold faceted after-image that was completely unlike Aerith's greenish barriers.

They didn't stop hitting the drones though.

The one nearest Tifa started to vibrate, building up to something. Some of its tentacles spun straight out, like whips. The middle tentacles wrapped around each other to form a point. Aerith figured getting hit by either would hurt, but before it could get moving, Cloud cast a strong wind spell that pushed it away. The drone was spun around in the air and zoomed toward the far wall instead of any of them, shattering a glass block shattered and cracking several others.

"Thanks," she said, gulping a breath in relief.

"No elemental weaknesses," Cloud called out, looking at his yellow Assess. "Defenses not great."

Tifa, who had jumped up in the air to deliver a very impressive punch-kick combo that did hardly anything, grunted unhappily. "Seriously?"

"Once barrier's down," Cloud corrected. "Two attacks: spinning drill – we've seen – and fire." He cast Slow on the one in front of them, and it was enough for Aerith to see it gathering its power.

Unsurprisingly, it spat fire at Tifa. She'd already moved out of the way and was doing her own version of powering up.

Zack hit it with Hardedge and its gold barrier dissolved into glittering lights. "Barrier's down!" he shouted, and they all piled onto it.

Aerith had her Arcane Ward up so she stood in it and cast Thundara. To her surprise, Cloud, who was standing right beside her, had his cast doubled as well. "Nifty," he said.

Tifa threw some lighting at it as well and Zack had ice in his sword. They hit it a lot, and they hit it hard. They hit it until it was smoking and stuttering, but they didn't kill it. It wobbled and jumped, but it managed to cast its pretty gold barrier and became practically untouchable once again.

Tifa must have caught movement from the far side of the room. "Second one's coming back!"

Aerith turned, but it was heading toward Zack. He spun to face it, deflecting its spinning attack by twisting somehow. It sent the returning drone careening into the damaged one and they both spun out and away.

As it they spun, Aerith noticed that the barrier on the badly damaged one flickered and failed. She cast another Thundara, knowing her ward would double the cast. The first bolt was stronger, but the second took it down. It fell in a crackling, hissing pile.

"Good job," Cloud commented. He cast Slow on the second one. Because it wasn't an attack, the cast slipped through the sentry's Barrier and its jittery movement turned into gentle bobbing.

"Back at you," Aerith said. She recast her own, weaker Barrier on them all – so close to being something more!

She decided to save the rest of her mana for when it could do the most damage, so she used the magic in her staff instead. She wasn't sure it was getting through, but it helped to not feel useless.

Zack and Tifa had it flanked, and they had a rhythm to how they were hitting it. Tifa hit it twice, Zack slashed it once. Tifa kicked it – a roundhouse kick, Aerith thought it was called – and Zack stabbed it. It was quite impressive.

It was probably wrong of her, but there was something very exciting about being in a fight like this. She felt more energized and alive than she'd felt the whole five years he'd been gone. No wonder Zack had enjoyed being SOLDIER.

The drone powered up for an attack and Tifa was forced to dodge as it twirled like a drill and dove at her.

 _Tifa_ got out of the way, but that meant it was coming straight at Aerith.

"Move," Cloud ordered. Aerith obeyed automatically, spinning out of her arcane ward and away from the attack. Cloud raised his blade like a shield and blocked the drone when it shifted to follow her. He had his feet braced, but it was hitting him hard.

Zack and Tifa attacked it from behind and the gold barrier sparked and glowed… then dimmed.

As if they were twins, both Zack and Tifa leaned back on one leg and then swung themselves forward, fists out and glowing with power.

The drone dropped to the ground. Not even a crackle left.

"Alright!" Tifa said. She held her hand up for a high-5, and Zack smacked it lightly, grinning. Aerith spun forward, so happy to be alive, and offered her hands for high-5s.

Cloud searched the drone, of course. He always searched the bodies. So far, he'd found smelling salts, some antidotes, and a _phoenix down_. This time there was nothing.

"Anybody hurt?" he asked as he rose.

He was hurt the worst. Probably from when he'd blocked the attack on her. Rather than using up more mana, Cloud decided to use a couple healing potions.

"Don't have time to drink in a fight," Zack said approvingly.

"Heavy, too," he said digging another small potion out of Marlene's backpack.

They were all extremely alert as they continued up the corridor, but nothing else came at them.

"Programmed patrol pattern," Zack said. "Maybe nobody was watching the screens?"

Cloud made a sound like he wanted to believe it but didn't really. Aerith agreed with that sound. Still, they made it to the turn off with no issues.

This new corridor was very narrow compared to the last one. A service corridor, Tifa said.

There was still room for Zack and Cloud to swing their swords (and Aerith could spin her staff), and without the looming industrial aura-of-evil, they all breathed a little easier. Well, Aerith breathed easier. Neither Cloud nor Zack seemed to relax much.

"Right up here," Tifa said. "Take the ramp down."

Except there was no ramp. There was no left turn. The corridor had been ripped away and a gaping hole revealed that the bottom was a long, _long_ way down. Maybe ten metres beyond where they stood, and about 5 metres lower, there was the landing that would've been at the bottom of the ramp.

"I can jump us across," Zack said, but his voice held doubt.

They stood at the gap, hearing wind and distant explosions and screams, while Tifa opened up the map book to find a new way down.

"It's like another whole city," Aerith said to Zack. She was standing in his arms, holding and being held. There were spots of lights all around the open central area, and the support columns, less massive than the ones supporting the Midgar plate, had its own light – it actually had a lot of flashing red lights, but from a distance they looked kind of pretty.

"It must've taken them years to dig this all out," Zack replied. "The _risk_ to the _plate_ …."

"They probably thought it was indestructible." Shinra always thought it was indestructible.

"Maybe it _was_ terrorists," he said. "If I was a terrorist, and I found out the base of Midgar was basically a big hole, I'd bomb the hells out of it, too."

"Could also be poor maintenance," Cloud added.

"True," Zack agreed. "Shinra loves to build big, but everything I know says they hate repairing."

"Hmm," Cloud nodded. "Boring."

"And expensive," Aerith added.

"I've got it," Tifa said. "Need to go back to the big corridor and keep going for a bit."

"We'll be exposed." Zack's voice was grim.

"Either that or climbing down." She tipped her chin at the gap.

"Fuuuuuck," Zack moaned. "I mean, frog nuts!"

Aerith grinned and gave a little skip. Tifa's jaw dropped in disbelief, but Cloud just lifted an eyebrow.

Zack grinned. "You're right. It stands out more."

Cloud rolled his eyes. He turned away to pick up his packs. "Don't get moving soon, we're gonna end up sleeping down here." That made them all shiver, so they sorted themselves out and walked back to the big corridor. When Zack checked, it was clear, so they walked – fast but not scurrying – along the side.

It didn't take long before the ceiling lowered dramatically, and the floor sloped steeply downward.

Tifa stumbled, and they all noticed the line of bumps across the width of the ramp. They were matched by a similar line in the roof. Cloud pointed out the dark control box on the other side. "Laser gate."

"No power," Zack smiled. "Let's keep going."

Down and around. They passed another dead laser gate and emerged into a warehouse space that was even larger and higher than the corridor up top. It was filled with palettes stacked with crates and barrels. Wheeled bins taller than even Zack, were stuffed with boxes and parts, and one wall was lined with mechanical creations. They reminded Aerith of the old smoggers in the junkyard, but with more guns and sawblades.

An entrance like the one they'd just left, beckoned from the far side of the room.

"Please say we don't have to cross through this."

"Okay," Tifa replied. "I won't say it."

"Frog nuts," Zack said.

Tifa shook her head. "That's just wrong."

"Frog balls?"

Aerith giggled.

"Toad poop," Cloud suggested sarcastically, and everybody wrinkled their noses. He smirked in triumph. "Stick to the right," he said, lifting his chin to point. "Stay behind palettes as much as possible."

"Worth a shot," Zack agreed. "If I remember rightly, those things are more visual than aural. If they don't see us, they won't attack." Cloud hummed agreement.

Order didn't matter so much when any attack would come from the side, so they moved in a clump. It meant they were a bigger target, but it also meant those things only had one chance to spot movement instead of four.

Heart pounding, Aerith moved with them steadily from palette to bin to what looked like a pile of scrap. She almost wanted to close her eyes to concentrate on listening for movement. But it wasn't sound she heard, that made her pause.

She felt something…

It was hard not to talk loudly, but she managed it. "Wait."

The others all halted, crouching low behind cover.

Aerith _did_ close her eyes to better sort out the feeling she'd gotten. It wasn't like hearing the planet, but it _was_ something. Just a fragment of awareness.

Careful to stay hidden from the machines, hands tucked up so she didn't accidently hit any of the piles, Aerith crept towards the scrap heap. The pull was definitely stronger. "Zack!" she whispered, waving him over. His crouched walk was much smoother than hers had been.

"Can you pull this up?" She pointed to something that looked like the wheel well of a car.

Zack popped his head over the top of the pile, gauging the distance from the nearest sentry machine. When he crouched back down, he huffed out a breath, and lifted the sheet.

It screeched like the terpsicolts in the collapsed tunnel between Sector 5 and the playground.

Everyone froze, listened….

Nothing.

"Clear," Cloud murmured.

Zack lifted it a little higher, and Aerith shifted a couple other bits of scrap until they could both see the glow. "Well, monkey nuts."

"Oo, I like that one," she said.

"And frog balls?" he suggested, and Aerith couldn't stop her giggle. Playful Zack was her favourite Zack.

"Still clear," Cloud said. He sounded resigned to their silliness. However, when Aerith pulled out the green materia, he couldn't stop his own mild curse.

"It feels almost like that phoenix down you found," she said once they were back together. She handed it to Cloud.

Cloud focused on the small green ball. It seemed to expand in his hand. "Revive," he murmured reverently. "Exactly like a phoenix down." He smiled, as wide and bright as Aerith had ever seen him, and she had to blink.

He held the orb out to her. "Here. You're our best healer."

"Is it valuable?" Zack asked.

Both Tifa and Cloud nodded. "Rare, too," Tifa said.

Zack's smile was as bright as Cloud's. "Cool."

Then it was back to scuttling from bin to palette, moving down the room a couple metres at a time. Until there were no more palettes, no more bins. "How far?" Cloud asked.

"Five metres," Zack answered. "Maybe a bit less."

All four of them turned to look at the final sentry. It looked like it had rocket launchers or flamethrowers.

"It's gonna notice." Tifa said what they were all thinking.

"It'll notice, but it's still going to take it a few seconds to react," Zack said. "It's too big to follow us down the next ramp."

"What if we move real slow?" Aerith asked.

"Slow enough not to trip its sensors?" Cloud didn't sound hopeful.

"So run," Tifa repeated. She was already bouncing on her toes.

Aerith looked at the big swords Zack carried – one on his back and one in his hand. Would he be able to run fast enough? She looked at him, waited for him to look back. He nodded in answer to her unspoken question. She decided to believe him.

Actually, he could probably run faster than she could even _with_ two humungous weapons. She'd been practicing at home, but none of the bounty work they'd done had required _speed_.

Besides, how did you train for that?

She said she was ready, though it wasn't completely true.

"On three," Cloud said. It was his turn to look at Zack in question. Zack nodded. They all counted down….

Tifa took off like a bullet, easily outpacing them all. Aerith lifted her skirt above her knees so that she could take a full stride and that helped. She could hear Cloud just behind her, and then he was beside her, between her and the sentry machine.

Zack was more distant.

She turned her head–

"Eyes front," Cloud snapped, and Aerith obeyed unthinkingly. "He's coming," he added in a softer tone.

She could hear the whirr and hum of the machine coming to life. Then more whirrs and hums as the other machines followed suit.

Its first step rattled the flooring and drowned out their footsteps.

Zack was behind them, she reminded herself. He wasn't trying to be a hero and fight all the machines.

Tifa dove through the opening, allowing herself to roll down the ramp. Or maybe she tripped, because that's what Aerith did – the ramp was a finger or two higher than the floor of the room. Cloud caught her before she could fall, and they spun-hopped into the wall by the entrance and kind of tripped-skipped down the slope.

"Keep going," Cloud said, as Aerith wobbled on the landing. Tifa caught her, let her get her balance. "You okay?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Aerith nodded. "You?"

"Good." This time when Tifa took off, she dragged Aerith with her. Cloud was right beside them.

They were halfway down the second one, when Fire filled the top of the ramp area. A huge blast that melted the non-skid flooring and scorched the metal walls.

Zack jumped over the railing from the higher side. His shirt was burning when he landed.

He dropped Hardedge and rolled the rest of the way down the slope. Aerith tucked herself into the wall as he spun past. Cloud jumped over him, but he hit Tifa hard and knocked her over.

"Fuck!" the fighter spat out.

Aerith had never heard Tifa swear before, and she'd wonder about that later, but right now Aerith concentrated on keeping her feet as she ran the distance between her and Zack, calling his name.

Zack scuttled into the corner and covered his head.

Aerith wobbled to a stop. "Zack?"

"Damn," Cloud whispered. Aerith turned to him in dismay, but Cloud was going up the ramp in a crouch. Getting Zack's new sword, she realized.

She could hear the sentry at the top of the ramp, stomping and whirring.

Cloud was taking a risk getting the sword back, but Zack would appreciate it.

Another gout of fire filled the upper ramp and curled around the landing. She could feel its heat, but it didn't get close to them. Not even to Cloud, who still flinched away from the blast.

"What's the matter with him?" Tifa asked as she picked herself up.

"Flashback," Aerith said sadly. She crouched to make herself smaller. "Zack? You're out," she said before inching a little closer. "You're safe." She stopped as soon as Zack flinched.

"Flashback to what?" Tifa asked.

Cloud answered her. "Hojo's lab. What else."

"Oh right," she said, as if she'd forgotten.

It was probably easy to do if you didn't spend much time with Zack, Aerith thought. He spent a lot of energy making people think he was the same boisterous, cheerful person he'd been before, but it slipped sometimes.

She focused on her sweet, loving boyfriend, repeating his name and reassuring him that he was out, he was free. Cloud crouched beside her. He added his soft voice to hers.

Tifa had more questions, but at least she kept her voice soft. "Why don't you just go over and hold him?"

"If he thinks we're Hojo's minions he might attack," Cloud answered. "Super enhanced SOLDIER versus somewhat enhanced amateur…."

"Squish," Tifa supplied.

"Yup."

Tifa decided to consult her map while Aerith and Cloud kept up their reassurances. It didn't actually take that long (it took forever) before Zack lowered his arms from around his head.

"I'm good," he said. "I'm out."

"Are you burned?" she asked. Zack just blinked at her. "Can I come over and look?"

"Yeah?" More blinking.

Carefully, slowly, Aerith moved to Zack's side. She cupped his face in her hands, running her garden-rough thumbs over his smooth cheeks. Whatever Hojo had done, it had ended Zack's ability to grow a lot of body hair: no chest or leg hair – no beard. Usually, she enjoyed the feel of it, but now, it just made him seem vulnerable.

"Hey Aerith," he said, finally seeing her. "You look good."

"You looked spooked," she responded. He just nodded. She made him turn around so she could inspect the damage herself.

Cloud crouched beside Zack's head. Something familiar he could focus on. "Hey Cloud."

His frog shirt was gone nearly to his waist on either side of his big buster sword.

"Hey, jungle boy."

She twisted the huge blade attached to Zacks' harness so she could check underneath.

"No fair insulting me now; I'm hurt."

It hadn't burned as high, but a couple threads were smoking, a little, so Aerith pinched them off. She checked his skin.

Cloud shifted his crouch. "Why the delay."

"Fucking _tripped_ ," Zack whined. "Can I just say, this place sucks balls?"

Small blisters only, already mostly gone.

She let out a relieved breath.

"How's the shirt?" he asked. "Is it salvageable?"

"No," Aerith answered. "It's an offence to good taste and should be destroyed." Cloud grunted in agreement.

"Damn," he groaned. "I really liked those frogs. Reminded me of home." He gave another over-pathetic groan and got to his feet. Cloud held out Hardedge, and Zack took it with a nod.

"How much farther," Cloud asked Tifa.

"One more level down," she said. "Nearly there."

"How many more of these deathtraps?" Zack asked, still using his whiny voice.

Tifa looked at the map. "Uh… One large room. No notes about what it's used for."

"Yay." Zack's voice was flat and resigned. He swung Hardedge a couple times. Aerith was probably the only one who heard him say that he hated "fucking fire". She wrapped herself around his free arm.

Cloud saw. He looked at her, flicked a glance at Zack, and gave a small nod.

"Zack, you have the best eyes. Watch for any small flying doohickeys coming from up top," he said. "Tifa'n me in front."

The noise Zack made said he knew exactly what Cloud was doing. Lucky for him he didn't argue. He needed the break, the time to get steady again, and she'd use anything in her power to make sure he got it.

Above them, the sentries still paced and clanked. In front of them the area was dim and unknown.

"Let's get this over with."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The songs that they sing as they descend the stairs are, in order:
> 
> 1\. [The quartermaster's store](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4fJd39TJng)  
> 2\. [Black socks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AOeL-QgDco)  
> 3\. [Great green gobs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzMshNafGFs)  
> 4\. [Nobody likes me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DNBKKc8s0k)  
> 5\. [This is the song that doesn't end](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_47KVJV8DU)
> 
> I had four siblings and a multitude of cousins growing up, and then I had two spawns of my own. My knowledge of disgusting and repetitive children's songs is deep and wide. Unfortunately.


	19. Carry the Load

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deepground is a mess. Once they find Genesis (if they find Genesis), they still need to get out before they're discovered, or it collapses. Or both. Both is a possibility.

Cloud couldn't help his rapid pulse or the bees buzzing in his stomach. It wasn't even where they were and what they were doing that had made his heart jackhammer. It had been seeing Zack all curled up and helpless.

He knew how to compensate, though – or maybe it was compartmentalize – so that his internal distraction didn't put the group in danger. Cloud hadn't been SOLDIER, but he'd been _a_ soldier, and some skills you never lost. He took control of the group and had them moving out in no time. Tifa in front as navigator with him as backup. Zack in the back so he could gather his bits together in private, with Aerith as backup.

Cloud moved quietly and alert to danger, even as he analyzed his own reaction to Zack's 'episode'.

It wasn't the first time Zack had had one, of course. The first week after Cloud found the ex‑SOLDIER on the cliff top had been filled with episodes from small panic attacks to full out flashbacks. (It was why he used socks to wake his friend up, instead of poking him from up close.) But Zack hadn't had an episode in a while, and Cloud thought – had hoped – they were mostly done with them. That his friend was figuring this stuff out.

On the other hand, Zack didn't have them as often. Maybe 'not often' was as close as they'd get to 'better' without talking to someone who actually knew what the fuck four years of mental and physical torture did to a person?

It wasn't a reassuring thought, because Cloud had gone to the university when he'd been in Kalm. He'd talked to every professor and doctor who might've had any kind of advice or expertise. They'd all said the same thing: brain trauma was caused by physical damage. If there was no physical damage, then there could be no trauma.

One of them had even air-quoted the word 'trauma'. Cloud had resisted the temptation to give the self-righteous prick a practical lesson in traumatic injuries.

However, if Kalm University didn't know, that meant there was no guidebook for this; No instructions he could ask for to help Zack through this. There was just him – Cloud Strife from Nibelheim – muddling his way through and hoping he didn't make it worse.

And if he didn't want to suffer his own damage, he needed to bring his thoughts back to the present. Zack's issues would still be waiting when they got out of here.

The room beyond the ramp wasn't as big as the one above. It was filled with control panels that had screens and buttons and keypads. Maybe, when they'd had power, they would've lit up this room to near daylight, but now only one screen was flashing: "CONNECTION TO INPUT SERVER LOST – press ENTER to reacquire"

Cloud didn't press anything.

"Service corridor crosses this room," Tifa said. "If the stairs hadn't been wrecked, we'd've come from the left." She pointed and Cloud could just make out the edges of what could've been a door between computer banks.

"We go right, then?"

"No, straight," she answered. "One more level down."

The emergency lights fizzed and popped. It made Cloud tense and look into the shadows. "Wait a sec," he said. He walked into the corner to find what had caught his eye. Unlike Aerith's find, it wasn't anything immediately useful. "Keycard," he said when he rejoined the group.

"Power's out," Tifa said in question.

"Might be useful later," Cloud said.

Aerith nodded agreement. "When the power comes back on."

"Let's hope we're out of here before that happens," Zack said with a rueful smirk.

Cloud could only agree with Zack. But still, he tucked the keycard into one of his pockets. His habit of salvaging everything found on a hunt too ingrained to ignore.

The ramp on the other side of the control room was obviously not aligned with the room's floor. In fact, it was low enough that Zack jumped first and swung Aerith down. That was the only hazard, though. They made it down to the next level and to the next big waste-of-space room without even a stubbed toe.

This room had a metal door blocking the entrance from the landing. Black and yellow diagonal stripes warned of danger, and there was a sign: _Authorized Personnel Only Beyond This Point_.

"This is it," Tifa said confirming what they already knew. No other reason to keep people out, right?

The lights on the card reader were dark, but Cloud waved the keycard in front of it anyway. Nothing.

"Emergency release?" he asked, and they all scanned the walls and the door looking for something.

"Doesn't look like it," Zack said. "Brute strength?" He handed Hardedge to Tifa and Cloud hitched Iron Blade to his harness. They put their hands in the crack and _pulled._

It moved maybe a finger's width.

They shoved their fingers in deeper and pulled harder.

Another finger's width.

"Couldn't Masamune cut through steel?" Cloud grunted. His muscles weren't hurting yet, but he could feel the strain.

"It wasn't the sword," Zack grunted back. "It was the move. Wait…. Maybe…" He gave Cloud a quick warning before letting go of the door.

It stayed open the small amount they'd been able to shift it.

Zack had taken his sword back from Tifa. "Hit me," he told her.

"What?" Tifa asked.

"I need my limit break," Zack said. "So, hit me."

With a shrug, Tifa bounced and then let loose. Zack was flung into the metal walls. They made an unhappy thrumming sound.

"Fuck me, I mean, frog balls," the SOLDIER groaned. He stood away from the wall, breathing. Aerith was standing with her hands clasped, looking worried.

"Need more?" Tifa asked.

Zack nodded. He stretched out his neck. "Half strength."

Tifa spun. Her kick caught him high on the shoulder and knocked him to the ground.

She bounced. "More?" Her tone was embarrassingly happy.

This time Zack stayed on the ground and breathed, assessing. "Nope. Should do." He climbed to his feet. "I am _so_ glad we're on the same side," he said as he stretched out his shoulder. Aerith handed him a small healing potion.

He lifted Hardedge above his head. "Okay, stand back. This is a pretty small space to use this in." They obediently took a step back up the ramp.

When Zack whipped his sword down, it carved white streaks of pure energy into the air. The streaks moved away from the metal of the blade and hit the door in flashes, cutting into it – cutting _deep_ into it.

Cloud watched and tried to figure out how it was done. It was definitely Sephiroth's famous Octoslash move, shown in so many of Shinra's promo videos, but it was also purely Zack – functional, but also flashy.

"Yeah!" Zack shouted as line after line burst from the end of his sword.

Cloud wanted that move.

When Zack was done, and the white glow had faded from the door, there were long lines along the edges, deep enough they could almost see through to the next room.

"Punch it?" Tifa suggested.

"Punch it," Zack agreed.

Cloud didn't have a fancy punch like they did, but he could kick pretty hard. "On three."

It fell with a hollow thump on the room's non-skid flooring.

"Alrighty then," Zack muttered.

Cloud scanned the room. It was a lot like the one above it, except for the far corner, next to the ramp leading down, was a frosted glass enclosure. Dim red lights indicated another container inside of that one, but Cloud couldn't make out the details.

The whole room showed signs of the people who worked here: chairs had sweaters draped over the back, there were coffee cups and what looked like the remains of a sandwich.

"Think they've gone far?" Zack asked him softly.

"It matter?" he asked back. They'd be lab coats, not fighters. Cloud wouldn't _like_ killing them, but he would if they interfered.

Cloud and Zack went in front this time, their dark vision better than either Aerith or Tifa's. Zack moved towards the glass room, both of them knowing it most likely contained the other former-First. Cloud looked around, hoping for a computer he could hack, find out what Shinra wanted from Deepground.

"Aerith." He nodded at a cupboard marked as Emergency Supplies. She nodded and her and Tifa both went over to loot it. There might not be materia or phoenix down, but simple antibiotics and pain killers were always in demand under the plate.

Zack hadn't even reached the glass enclosure when the room started to shake.

Wheeled chairs rolled as the floor tilted. The dim emergency lights flickered and cracked. A ceiling light fell out of its casing and swung in wild arcs before settling into a soft sway.

It stopped, but they waited, braced for aftershocks.

"Nearly there, brother." The voice came from the down ramp.

Cloud looked at Zack. Zack nodded – he'd heard it, too. Soundlessly they moved to flank the far entrance. There wasn't a door on it like there had been to get into this room, so presumably it was one big super-secret-science-lab here on out.

"I will save you, brother. Do not give up." The voice was male, young, stretched almost to breaking. If the brother was with him, he didn't respond.

A chair, temporarily caught on a groove in the flooring, was finally dragged free by gravity. It rolled a short way before getting caught once again and tipping over with a crash.

Cloud forced himself to ignore the distraction. He'd seen movement on the ramp: one dark head and one pale. He looked over at Zack, made sure the SOLDIER was looking back. Cloud pointed fingers at his eyes and then pointed down the ramp. Then he held up two fingers.

Zack frowned. He held up one finger.

Cloud repeated the gestures, and Zack shrugged, accepting that Cloud saw two, but he didn't.

Two heads crossed the threshold as one. It was hard to tell – the dark-hair one seemed to fade into the shadow – but it looked like he was dragging his light-haired brother up from the bottom.

"Hi there," Zack said, because of course he would. Dark head spun – or tried to. His brother was a dead weight along one side. The sudden shift unbalanced him and they both fell to the floor.

"Oh sh- I mean, monkey nuts," Zack said. "There _are_ two of you."

"Are you here to help?" Dark Hair asked. It sounded both young and strangely innocent considering where they were.

"Help how?" Zack crouched so he was closer. Cloud kept his distance in case it was a lure.

He had to keep turning his head to watch the pair with his peripheral vision, or the dark-haired one practically faded from view. He didn't like it.

From what he did see of the dark one's face, Cloud estimated the boy had just hit puberty. Or whatever Hojo was doing down here had delayed it. His voice was soft enough to be any age, he was narrow in his face and shoulders, and there was no hint of a beard or acne.

However, there _were_ jagged lines of dark liquid – blood and more – dripping from his nostrils and his ears. Not a great sign.

"My brother, Weiss, needs healing." The dark-haired one tipped his chin towards the pale form he held, who didn't move or make a sound. "The machine – it blew. He was in it – and he was hurt. But he can be fixed. He can still fulfil his destiny."

The last was almost pleading. As if the boy had to prove their worth before anyone would help him.

Considering what Zack had told him about Sephiroth's childhood under Hojo, it was probably true.

"Is that Weiss?" Zack nodded at the pale one. The dark one nodded. "What's your name?"

"Nero," the boy said. He coughed, a wet hacking sound. Blue-black liquid stained his lips. "Nero the Sable, but I am unimportant. You must save Weiss."

From here, Cloud could see the boy's back. His shirt was open. Metal implants and bracing were visible through the cloth. It meant the experiments done on him weren't just cellular, weren't just mako.

Cloud had to force himself to loosen his grip on Iron Blade. He'd been 15 when he joined Shinra. How old had this boy been?

Zack shook his head sadly. "Kid…"

"If we can get him to Specimen G," Nero said quickly. " The professor said G-cells would help."

"Kid," Zack repeated firmly. "He's already dissolving." He nodded at Weiss's legs and hands, at the wrist Nero was holding. Pale green flickers inched out of Weiss's body, escaping through a layer of blue-black ichor that was also seeping out.

Nero wailed. "Surely it can be reversed?"

Zack shook his head. "Not once it's started." His voice was kind, but firm. Cloud knew why. A dissolving body took the creature's spirit with it into the Lifestream. They could heal the body, but whatever made a person more than flesh, was already going away. Trying to bring it back never worked.

Religions used to say it was why the lights shone and sparkled and danced as they rose: souls joyful to meet their god.

Maybe. Cloud had no evidence otherwise.

Nero placed a dark hand on his brother's cheek. "If he dies, what purpose is there to life?"

"Uhh," Zack stumbled. Cloud couldn't think of anything either. Not that he didn't value being alive, but from the sounds of it, no argument they'd give would change the boy's mind.

"I will keep our promise, my beloved brother," Nero whispered, ignoring everyone else. "We will tread the unknown path together." Nero coughed. A large gout of black liquid spilled from his mouth.

"I have to ask you, formally," Zack said. "You're injured, probably dying. Do you wish to be Healed?"

"I will go with Weiss," Nero muttered. He laid down next to his brother and hugged him close. Weiss's dissolution had sped up with larger, brighter green motes. "Together, so that none may ever tear us apart. As it was meant to be."

"Alrighty then." Zack huffed out a breath. "Do you need anything? A blanket or a pillow?" But Nero didn't hear the offer. His eyes slid closed and dull green sparkles pulled free of his body, drifting close to the flesh before rising up and disappearing.

Zack looked up. "'Geal? If you can hear me, I think this kid could use some help up there."

Whatever sign Zack was hoping for, Cloud didn't see anything. After a moment, Zack stood up. They were joined by Tifa and Aerith. Aerith took Zack's hand and hummed a soft tune that was suitable for this. Tifa stood a little closer to Cloud than she usually did. Cloud shifted his weight to the foot closest to her, a little bit of extra reassurance for both of them.

"Fire?" he asked.

Aside from Rosso the Crimson, these would be the first humans they'd encountered; the first ones that had died.

Like the monsters they'd killed, there was no doubt the boys' cells had been messed with. Letting them dissolve naturally risked infecting the Lifestream with whatever Hojo had used. However, would it deny the two boys their chance for an afterlife if they cremated them before they'd fully dissolved?

"Aerith, what do you think?" Zack asked.

She looked as serious as she ever did. She knelt by the two boys, hand out. Almost immediately, she pulled her hand back. "Fira."

A moment of concentration to cast its strongest fire spell and the blond brother's body burned. Another one for Nero, and then there was nothing but ash floating in the entrance. Cloud didn't say anything about the sniffing he heard from Tifa. He just put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Not used to the smell," she said. Nobody called her on it. Instead, they took a moment, looking down at the scorch marks.

Cloud was the first to turn away. "Let's find your friend and get out of here, yah?"

"Not really my friend," Zack said, but he was already turning to look at the glass enclosure. "He's gotta be in there," he said.

They all went up to the glass, trying to peer inside, but it wasn't any clearer up close.

"Everyone look for controls," Cloud said.

He walked to the wall on the left. Logically, the door should be attached to one of the walls so it could just slide away, and there was a computer station there. Cloud touched the pad built into the station and the screen lit up. INITIATE REBOOT? it flashed. Cloud pulled his hands away. "It's got some backup power," he told the others.

"I think I found the door panel," Aerith said from the right side. Cloud turned to watch.

As the one with the most experience with Shinra's equipment, Zack looked at the controls Aerith had found.

He looked. He shrugged. He pulled the handle.

Two things happened: One, the right glass panel slid into the wall. Two, the message on the screen in front of Cloud changed to: Unauthorized access detected. Automatic system reboot initiated. Credentials required to override.

"Heads up!" Cloud called out to Zack. "System's restarting."

"How long?" Tifa asked. All Cloud could do was shrug. It wasn't like there was a countdown on screen.

He took the keycard out of his pocket and waved in front of anything that looked like a sensor. He ran it through a couple of slots that could've been readers. The screen blinked more slowly a couple times after he tried the second slot, but then it went back to the reboot message.

He could try zapping it with lightning, but that might trip an immediate alarm.

"Cloud!" Aerith called. "I think Zack could use some help."

Cloud jerked his chin at her, and she came over to the station. He gave her the keycard. "Watch the screen. Let us know when it changes." He touched Tifa's shoulder as he passed her; "Tifa. Quickest way to the nearest exit. Stairs, elevator, whatever."

Tifa nodded and pulled out the custodian's map.

Cloud walked through the opening. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting but it wasn't what faced him. First Class SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos wasn't on a medical bed or on flat surface of any kind. He was in a large, mako-filled tank, apparently hanging from dozens of tubes and wires that ran to, or rather _into_ him from outside the tank. The wing Zack had described was out with _more_ wires and tubes. It was practically featherless.

Rhapsodos' famous red hair was mostly covered by a thick metal helmet. Across the front his name was embossed in heavy all caps: GENESIS. Under it were the words, 'property of Shinra Electric Company – copyright: [μ] εуλ 1980'.

Zack wasn't looking at Rhapsodos.

He was standing facing the wall, hands on hips. He appeared to be taking deep, deep breaths.

"Problem?" Cloud asked.

Zack's head turned only slightly towards him. "Yeah," he said. He gave a nod that somehow seemed angry.

"What is it?"

Zack punched the wall, leaving a slight dent. "This is how Jenova was hooked up when we found her." He tipped forward until his forehead rested against the cold metal.

Cloud kept back. He should be looking for the controls, but he kept his focus on his friend. "In Nibelheim," he confirmed.

Again, one sharp nod. "Yeah. At the reactor."

"And?" Zack said nothing. Cloud kept in his sigh. "What you afraid of, Zack? If you weren't afraid of something, you'da ripped the door off already."

Zack huffed a laugh. It was a good sign.

"You think he's another Jenova?" Might as well get it out there.

"That's the thought, isn't it?" Zack pushed away from the wall, and finally turned to face Cloud. "What if Hojo did to him what he did to me? What if he's truly a monster now?"

Cloud considered it. He'd never seen Jenova, had only his friend's descriptions to go on, but Zack hadn't sounded happy it shared the planet with the rest of them.

On the other hand, Aerith's mother had told her the Calamity story, and Aerith had shared it with them, and it told the story of a danger contained and trapped. Jenova didn't sound safe, but Cloud didn't think it was an immediate issue.

"Maybe he got more Jenova cells put in him, maybe he doesn't, but both Nero and the red one said Hojo was _taking_ things from Rhapsodos. He had value the way he was," Cloud said firmly. "Why would Hojo risk that by adding more of what he already had?"

This time Zack's laugh was a little bitter. "Have you met the man?"

"Yah," Cloud said quietly. It sobered Zack.

"Then you know he'd do it because he was bored."

It wasn't a lie.

And Zack's concern _was_ valid. If they'd pumped a SOLDIER of Rhapsodos' power with _more_ Jenova-tainted mako, and it had turned him into a monster, then they'd have a hard time taking him down. It had taken a Minerva summon the last time Zack had said. That was a few steps above Cloud's Ifrit.

Tifa had Odin. Between the two, they might have enough time to escape.

Speaking of escape…

"Need to decide," he said. "System's are rebooting. Maybe an alarm. We need to be going."

"Fuuuuuck," Zack groaned. "How bad will I feel if we leave him here," he asked the ceiling.

Cloud answered for it: "Very."

That got another snorting laugh, but it got Zack moving. He switched his sword to his off hand. "Okay. First thing we need to do is drain the tank."

"First thing is to get there," Cloud pointed out. After all, there was another glass wall between them and it.

He could've saved the words. Zack wound up and punched the glass. It may have been reinforced, but Zack was pissed. Cracks appeared.

Tifa popped her head in. "Aerith said to tell you the screen now says 'possible containment breach' along with the rest."

Cloud walked to the side and pulled a lever. "How 'bout this?" The nearest panel slid open a few inches. It didn't take much to push it fully into the wall.

Zack walked through. "Well, sure. If you wanna be _smart_ about it."

Cloud ducked before the larger man could ruffle his hair, which is what Zack usually did when he teased Cloud.

The former-SOLDIER went to the right side of the tank and pressed a series of buttons. There was a soft beeping sequence followed by the sound of the thick liquid draining out the bottom. It was fast, Cloud'd give them that. But then Shinra'd had a lot of years to perfect the design.

As it drained, Rhapsodos sagged in the tubing and wires but didn't fall. Meaning there was something else keeping him upright.

Once the mako was below the bottom lip, Zack pushed a couple more buttons on the side of the tank. That made latches spring out along the edge of the glass. Zack flipped those, and the whole front opened.

First thing Cloud thought was that it smelled really bad.

It wasn't anything like the open mako pools outside Nibelheim, which had had a sharp, acrid smell like lemon peel or too-strong tea. This was rotting lemons and milky tea left to curdle. Cloud coughed once, and then breathed through his mouth.

"He got a pulse?" Cloud asked.

With his height, Zack could easily reach up to Genesis' neck. He took off his glove and felt through the residual slime for Rhapsodos' heartbeat. He gave a sharp nod. "Slimey," he complained. He flicked his fingers and Cloud see the spots of tainted mako stick to the outside of the tube.

Tifa put her head in. "It's rebooted. Now it's loading."

"Got the route?" Cloud asked her. She nodded.

"Help me pull these things off him," Zack asked. Cloud and Tifa both moved forward, but there was barely room for two in the opening. Tifa went back to investigate more of the main room.

There were a lot of wires 'on' Rhapsodos, attached to his skin with clamps and patches, but there seemed to be an equal number of tubes that were 'in'. Small ones feeding stuff into his veins and taking blood out. A large one going into his stomach, and a slightly smaller one coming out lower down. Food in – waste out. Very efficient.

"Fucking psychos," Cloud muttered.

That got a startled belly laugh from Zack. He gave Cloud a nudge. "Glad to know there's some things worth swearing properly for."

Cloud didn't bother responding, just kept unhooking and pulling until there was only the straps holding the former First to a clear plastic frame. He handed his Healing materia to Zack so the SOLDIER could cast Cura and Regen. Rhapsodos took a visible breath but didn't wake up.

"You undo and I'll catch," Zack said.

"You got two swords," Cloud pointed out. "You cut. I'll catch and carry."

Zack looked like he wanted to argue, but he couldn't. The handle of his buster sword stood up behind his head, and there was a risk that the unconscious Rhapsodos would cut something if he dangled next to the exposed blade.

Finally, Zack nodded, he took out his knife and cut through the fabric instead of fiddling around with the unfamiliar buckles. He did the wing first, tucking it away where it wouldn't get pulled dangerously as Rhapsodos fell forward. Then legs, then arms, then chest.

Cloud let him fall over his left shoulder, heedless of the mako still dripping from everywhere. Unfortunately, Rhapsodos was naked, and his skin was covered with it. It made him slippery to hold.

He also stank.

"Tifa's found the quickest way to an exit," Cloud said.

"Hopefully, it involves a working elevator." Zack smiled ruefully at him.

"Yah," Cloud agreed. Rhapsodos wasn't as heavy as Cloud would've thought, though it made sense. The Crimson General wasn't anywhere near Zack's height or muscle mass. He was still an awkward, naked body that wanted to slide off Cloud's shoulder. He gave a small shrug.

"What's the path?" he asked first thing after entering the main chamber.

"Elevator access a level down but through a few hallways," Tifa answered.

"You and Zack leading," Cloud said. "Aerith, you're rear, so eyes open and ears wide, yah?"

"Got it!" she said with a thumbs up.

Cloud gave a nod to Tifa. Anytime she was ready, they'd follow.

"Should we find him some clothes first?" she asked.

"If we sprung a silent alarm, security forces will be coming in force," Zack said. "Best to be gone before they get here."

Tifa looked at him for confirmation. Cloud nodded. He wanted out of this place.

The first half of the ramp was fine, and they moved easily, but the second part was seriously uneven. Panels had lifted – or dropped; Cloud couldn't tell – and they had to jump over gaps a couple times. Exposed wires dangled. No electrical sparks like in the movies to show they were live, so they had to avoid those as well.

Even holding Rhapsodos' legs and his arm in a standard rescue carry, the SOLDIER slid down Cloud's back. He was just so damn _slippery_. Maybe once all the tainted mako dried up Cloud would have an easier time. Until then, Genesis dripped and slid, and Cloud shrugged him back up.

The lower floor had been split up into equipment rooms using flimsy drywall. Half the rooms Cloud could see had broken or missing wall panels.

Another sign the quake had run through here were the overturned supply bins. He spotted a couple ethers spilling out from a broken box. He pointed them out to Aerith who grabbed them all.

They gave Aerith a moment to see if she picked up on anymore materia, but there was nothing.

Tifa nodded to the right, where the service corridor's door frame had buckled, and the door had split. A hard punch from her and a firm kick from Zack had both parts falling clear. There were no lights in the long hallway.

"We need a flashlight," Zack said loudly enough to be heard over the echoes.

"Enhanced vision?" Tifa asked.

Zack shook his head. "I still need a bit of light."

Cloud let Rhapsodos slide to the floor. He rolled his shoulders to loosen them as he walked to the nearest broken wall. It was an electrical room. There were lots of warning lights flashing dimly. There didn't look to be anything else. He went back out.

Aerith and Zack were going through the supplies in the bins – hundreds of small boxes. They could only hope that whoever had packed the bins had put similar items together. Tifa had taken the rooms on the far side, so Cloud went to the next one on his side.

It was some kind of security room. There were multiple screens, most dark, and a weapons cabinet that had been unlocked and emptied. There was a box on the wall labeled EMERGENCY. It was locked. Cloud punched the front, creating a handhold, and proceeded to rip the cover right off.

He didn't see a flashlight, but he found another ether. He downed it. There were bandages he could use to wipe the mako off Rhapsodos, so he took those. There was an old Sense materia that wasn't even mastered. However, Cloud could sell it as-is to an antiques collector for a good bit of gil. He put it in his pack.

It occurred to him that this was basically theft. He didn't _need_ the materia. It wouldn't help them survive down here, and it probably wouldn't do any good once they were up top again.

On the other hand, Cloud could say the pretty much the same thing about Genesis Rhapsodos.

He couldn't believe Shinra had put a "property of" label on the man.

Well, he _could_ , but it made him scarily angry.

People weren't _things_.

This was a basic, fundamental right that was given to any sentient being.

And yet, here was Shinra – fucking setting themselves up as a feudal kingdom and enslaving people, using them up until they died.

They did it sneakily, though, made the company seem attractive, encouraged people to volunteer, but once they'd signed the waiver, Shinra considered them expendable. There were always more young people with dreams of being heroes.

Although he didn't agree with her methods, Cloud was beginning to think that Tifa was right: Shinra needed to be brought low, destroyed. Killing the president wouldn't change Shinra. The rot went up too high, affected too many people. The president might've approved Hojo's experiments, but someone had bought the equipment the lab techs had used. Someone had cleaned the cages Hojo's experiments had been kept in. Yet nobody had said anything.

Ten million wouldn't come close to making up for everything Shinra'd done, so Cloud refused to feel guilty about stealing some ancient, forgotten materia out of their fucking _evil_ lab.

He needed to calm down though. Losing his temper here wouldn't help anybody.

He stopped riffling through the drawers and just stood in the middle of the room, breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth. He tried to fill his mind with soothing thoughts. He was usually good at taking what life handed him, but this…. This bothered him deeply, and he couldn't find his calm.

He was unreasonably relieved when Tifa called out that she'd found a flashlight. He still flipped open the small wardrobe, just in case there was something else they could use, and just to prove their luck wasn't completely horrible, there was a clean set of yellowish coveralls hanging from a hook.

Cloud took those too.

The others helped him clean Rhapsodos off using the bandages he'd scrounged. They chatted, but Cloud didn't join in.

Aerith touched his cheek. "You have some mako on you." Automatically, Cloud lifted his hand to touch the spot, but Aerith grabbed his wrist, turning it to show a faint shine on his skin. "You were holding him."

Tifa shone the light towards his arm. It glowed faintly green. "Damn."

Cloud stared at it.

Aerith was already dousing a clean bandage with water. Cloud didn't wait for her to carefully wipe with her usual care. He took the cloth and _scrubbed_. Cheek, neck, arms, and hands. Anywhere he could reach that could have tainted mako on it.

He hadn't thought of it when he'd suggested he carry Rhapsodos. They needed to get him out of there, and Cloud was the most logical one to carry him. It had been simple, logical, but now he just felt stupid. Of _course_ , the tainted mako that coated Rhapsodos had rubbed off and maybe soaked into him. Of course, it would.

Stupid.

At least, Cloud knew why he was having trouble with his temper.

"You okay?" Tifa asked.

"Wasn't thinking," he admitted. "But he'll be covered now, so it'll be alright."

"Sure?" She didn't sound like she believed him. "I could…"

Cloud shook his head. "You're the navigator. You have to be up front," he said. "And Zack's our best fighter. He needs to be able to move."

"You'll tell us if you start…" Aerith shrugged. "Showing signs, I guess."

"Oh yah." Cloud nodded firmly. "Been mako poisoned before. Didn't enjoy it either time."

"Twice?" Zack asked. He was stuffing Rhapsodos into the coveralls, but he'd stopped to look at Cloud.

"When we were kids, he fell into one of the open pools," Tifa answered for him. "It was horrible."

"Yansen was a bully. Did it deliberate."

"You can't know that," Tifa protested. "We were all there playing."

Cloud didn't look at her. "He told me after I got better. Said the village would be better off it I was dead."

Tifa frowned. "Why didn't you tell someone?"

He snorted. "'Cause he was the merchant's son and well liked, and I was 'that weird Strife boy'. He wasn't wrong when he said nobody'd believe me."

Tifa's frown grew, but Cloud didn't try to sooth it away. She hadn't seen the ugliness that Nibelheim had held for an outsider, and half the time she didn't believe him when he pointed it out. Plus, this wasn't the time to rewrite her memories. He grabbed all the fouled bandages, put them on the floor away from the boxes, and burned them.

"Ready to go?" he asked them, walking away from the acrid smoke.

Zack and Aerith nodded. Tifa, still frowning, nodded more slowly.

Zack helped him get Rhapsodos up and balanced before moving up to the front. Cloud gave a hop… Rhapsodos didn't slide. Zack gave him a reassuring cuff on the shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay," Aerith asked quietly and Tifa and Zack sorted themselves out in front.

Cloud nodded. "Twitchy, a little. But okay."

She gave him a long searching look before nodding back at him. Whatever she'd seen, it'd satisfied her. Aerith gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. His skin warmed at the contact and Cloud knew he was blushing.

Then they were moving, walking carefully into the long, corridor lit only by the single beam of a basic flashlight. It was enough for his enhanced eyes, but beside him, Aerith stumbled over debris she couldn't see.

"Walk behind me," he said. "Hand on my back to feel the rhythm." He waited until she was in position. "Right foot first."

It was easy. He wasn't taking long steps anyways because of Rhapsodos, so it was easy to match his strides to Aerith's. The only disconcerting thing was how aware he was of the pressure of her hand against his back. Like the phantom echo of her kiss.

He'd mostly been joking when he'd made that suggestion to Zack last week, but maybe there'd been a kernel of truth to it as well. Huh.

The reason for the darkness was explained by the door at the end of the hall. It was locked, but Zack just kicked it and it flew out of the frame.

Cloud kept Aerith back while Zack and Tifa did a quick sweep for danger. When Zack waved them forward, they both jogged out into the light. It another wide corridor, with the same glass block layers under the ceiling and the fake columns that they'd seen up top.

"Left," Tifa said, so that's the way they went. It was peaceful for five minutes, until they walked out to what had to be the middle of the complex. It was a huge open atrium dug out of the earth and lined with offices. It was filled with pillars and struts and a large central construction of tubes and huge pressure pipes.

The walkway they were on extended a couple metres out into it. There were few lights, and most of the ones Cloud could see were either dim, emergency lights, or flashing alarms.

"Too exposed," Zack muttered.

Tifa was already heading right, fast and even, so Cloud followed. His pace was more jagged with Rhapsodos bouncing on his shoulders, but he kept up – he agreed with Zack.

Flying guards, in awkward helicopter-style rigs, rose from the below their platform. Fully helmeted, they looked like weird insects in uniforms of deep red with more of the glowing blue that Rosso'd had on her outfit. They had assault rifles that looked similar to the gun Cloud had used as an infantryman, but bigger.

The security force opened fire immediately. They should've suffered knock-back from firing their weapons with nothing to brace them, but they didn't. More Science Department bullshit.

At the first gunshot, Aerith had her arcane ward up. She blasted the nearest guard with lightning and his rig failed completely. With smoke and fire billowing from his harness, he fell back the way he'd come.

He didn't scream, which was a little creepy.

Tifa and Zack started bouncing up, whacking the flyers with fists or steel, and then rebounding back onto the platform. It meant Cloud couldn't risk casting any of his wind spells. If he knocked one of the flyers out of position as either Tifa or Zack were aiming at him, then they could go sailing right out into the abyss. Zack might survive. Tifa probably wouldn't.

Instead, all Cloud could do was try to block incoming bullets, so they didn't hit Aerith. Unfortunately, the flyers were terrible shots and ricochets came in from every direction. He got a couple across his arm that burned like acid. Rhapsodos, poor sod, was taking a lot of the bullets aimed their way.

"Is this the area that we were warned against?" Zack yelled.

"Yah," Tifa shouted back. "Quickest route, though."

There were too many guards, and they were coming in too close. Aerith's magic was phenomenal, but even she could only take down so many at a time. They needed another long-range option.

"Need a gun!" he shouted at the two in front.

"We need to run!" Zack countered. "We're too exposed here."

Right, Cloud thought. That was a better idea.

"Get ready!" he warned. This would use up all the mana he'd recovered so far, but it should give them the time they needed to find better cover. He was wearing his Comet materia – his _leveled_ Comet materia – and he was standing in Aerith's magic circle. Hopefully it would cast twice and make the space in front of them too dangerous for flying.

The magic felt pulled from his toes, but it worked.

Instantly, magical burning rocks, half a dozen or more. slammed full force into the flying soldiers. The ones that weren't hit by Comet, were knocked sideways when their buddies were knocked into them. It was chaos and death, and just what they needed.

"Go!" Zack shouted. "I'll cover."

Tifa didn't hesitate. She just started running to the right. Cloud nodded to Aerith to go next. He followed her. Cloud could hear Zack grunt as bullets hit home. All he could do was hope that it didn't put the guy into a flashback fugue.

But it wasn't flashbacks or panic attacks Cloud heard behind him, but the distinctive THWUMP-hiss of one of Zack's powered moves. Either Exploder Blade or Blast Wave. Those two could knock opponents back, out of the fight. Based on more of Shinra's manufactured material, like his Death Jump, Zack had been working on getting them back.

There were a couple explosions – hopefully more flyers – and then Zack's triumphant "Ha!"

When Aerith paused to recast Barrier on Zack, Cloud ran past her. He'd have to trust that she knew her timing.

The corridor curved around the mostly open centre. The only thing in the middle was the massive cluster of transfer pipes. Hundreds of large, pressurized tubes and thousands of smaller ones, ran from it to the buildings. They actually looked familiar.

Cloud risked a look over the rail, down to the bottom of the pit. It glowed, more white than green, but still familiar. Above the mako pool was a structure that looked like a smaller version of the reactors circling Midgar – at least what was left of it. A huge chunk had been blown out of one side and most of the pipes in and out had either melted or fallen.

All around where the reactor had been, the structure was bent or broken. Even in the quick glance he took, Cloud saw a large section of a support pillar shear off and fall into the liquid mako. "Odin's eye," he whispered. It was a prayer.

Aerith ran past him. Zack gave him a shove. "No sightseeing."

Obediently, Cloud sped up. A few metres ahead, Tifa stood in the entrance to a corridor. On the left, more of the flying guards rose into view.

Gunfire blasted out from behind him.

Cloud risked a look over his shoulder.

Zack was firing a Shinra assault rifle, one-handed and from the hip.

"Never gonna hit anything firing like that," Cloud protested. All his weapon drills protested the bad firing discipline.

"Not trying to," Zack replied. "Just got to keep them away until we get to the door."

Good point.

A glance showed it was working: the flying guards were keeping their distance. They were still shooting, but the bullets were going mostly too high or too low. Rhapsodos took a solid hit where he was draped over Cloud's back and grunted at the impact.

Aerith disappeared into the corridor. Cloud put on a burst of speed.

Cloud, running full speed, and expecting a hallway, looked up to see a wall. Too late to stop, he twisted and let Rhapsodos take the hit.

It wasn't a door Tifa had led them to, but a gate. One of those old-fashioned folding gates used on old-fashioned elevators.

This was the elevator up.

Zack ended up running right into him. Cloud got slammed backward and Genesis took another hit.

At least he'd managed to protect Rhapsodos' head.

"An elevator?" Zack asked.

Tifa nodded. "Think it'll work?" she asked, even as she pushed the up button. It lit up. The gears, or whatever, creaked and rumbled. They started to move.

"Hopefully, it keeps going," Zack said. He was looking up, as if he could see the cables and wires, and all the things needed for them to keep going up.

Disembodied but oddly familiar music began to play.

"The reactor blew," Cloud said. He gave a little jump and shrugged his shoulders, settling Rhapsodos into a new position which was almost as good as putting him down. (Not really, but it did help.) "Bet that was the quake we felt."

"What reactor?" Tifa asked.

"Evil lab had its own reactor," Cloud said. "It went BOOM."

Zack was staring at him. "They built a reactor under their main headquarters."

"Hmm," Cloud agreed. He plucked a bullet out of Rhapsodos' leg. Seeing that, Aerith cast Cura on the unconscious First and more bullets plinked against the floor.

Zack was rubbing his head. "You know," he said slowly. "Don't most myths have the powerful being ruined by their own arrogance? I mean, did old man Shinra _not_ _read_ the same books in school that we did?"

"Part of arrogance is thinking it won't happen to you," Tifa pointed out. Zack sighed, conceding the point.

"I worked for idiots," he muttered. "Arrogant, fucking, idiots. We won't have to do anything to bring them down. They'll just–" He tipped his hand over in stages, like dominos falling one after the other. "–all on their own."

"As long as it's _after_ they pay us," Tifa said, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"I thought you wanted them to research mako alternates?'

She nodded. "But if we have the gil, we can fund it independently from them, right?"

"Sure!" Zack said enthusiastically. "Actually, I've been thinking about it since I had that, um, meeting with your friend Barret. Did he tell you about my suggestions?"

Tifa shook her head, and that was all the encouragement Zack needed to go into a _lot_ of detail about how they could develop their own alternate fuel, who they should contact, and how they could convert the current power grid.

It was going to be a _long_ trip up.

.o0|0o.

Barret stared at the hole where the bar used to be. Behind it, the culvert mall had sunk so it looked like a huge V sticking out of the ground, pointy side up. Shops and homes to either side were either down or tilted.

"Daddy?"

Marlene's voice cut through the blank fog that had filled his mind. This was way too similar to what had happened to Corel.

"Yes, sweetheart?" he murmured to the little girl as he lifted her to sit safe in his arms. Child of his oldest friend and his deepest regret.

"Is Tifa okay?"

"I'm sure she is, sweetheart," he said. He wasn't sure of anything of the sort. "We just have to be patient, is all."

Marlene didn't look impressed.

"We found Biggs and Wedge didn't we?"

Marlene looked over towards the pair, busy doing triage under Marle's eagle-eyed guidance. Turned out, she'd been an army nurse in Fort Condor. Before they'd lost their war against Shinra.

"Still need to find Jessie," Marlene told him.

"I know sweetheart. I just wanted to come back here and make sure you were okay."

"I'm okay, daddy." But she hugged his neck as hard as she could as she said it, so Barret didn't believe her.

That was alright. He wasn't okay either.


	20. Moving Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team's escaped from Deepground, but they're not safe yet. They still need to get out of Shinra Tower, and Zack may have overlooked one tiny, but important detail.

Eventually, Zack ran out of ideas about alternate energy to share with Tifa, but he still felt good about having shared them. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of cutting Shinra out of power production completely. It would be dangerous (Rufus and the board would probably send the Turks, if not the whole army) but between the four of them, they had enough muscle and smarts to protect the company while it started up.

They'd probably have to do it away from Midgar or Junon though. Someplace where it was more difficult for Shinra to watch.

Not Wutai, Zack thought, because that would give Shinra too much incentive to attack it again. Maybe Cosmo Canyon - that place was a _maze_.

Aerith had snuggled up beside him, arms around his waist, sharing her ideas, too. Cloud had kept his comments short, still a bit jittery from the tainted mako. Zack promised himself he'd keep an eye on his friend – any more exposure to mako of any kind could bring Cloud up to SOLDIER Third level. If he accidentally ripped off a doorknob, Zack would know he'd reached it.

In the mechanical quiet of the elevator the piped-in music filled the space. It was innocuous, ubiquitous, and vaguely horrible. Yet his head bobbed along to the rhythm automatically, and Aerith hummed along with it against his chest, which felt nice.

One song turned into another, that didn't really sound any different, and then another, and…

"Shit!"

He jumped forward and hit the emergency stop button. The elevator car jerked only slightly.

"What?" Tifa asked, looking around to see where the threat was.

Zack cleared his throat. "It just occurred to me that this elevator probably only stops in two places in the tower." He looked at Cloud, whose eyes widened in realization.

"Science Department," Cloud said.

Zack nodded. "And, unless Hojo is way better at embezzling than he is at science, the president's floor. We want to get off on _neither_ of those," he pointed out. Unnecessarily, he hoped.

"You expect us to climb out?" Tifa's eyes flicked to Aerith as she said it. Zack nearly laughed. Aerith couldn't fight like Tifa, but she was just as strong in her own way.

"We won't have to go far – shouldn't, anyway," Zack assured them. "All the elevators are built into a couple of shafts – even the private ones. There'll be doors and access points we can use to get out."

"Kinda defeats the purpose of being private," Cloud pointed out. He was already hoisting Genesis back up though, so Zack didn't take the objection to heart. Still….

"Lemme check," he said. He jumped up and caught the latch for the emergency escape hatch. It opened and a heavy chain ladder slithered out nearly to the floor. "Cool!" he said. He'd been prepared to try and jump up through the hatch, but with two big swords, he hadn't been looking forward to it.

He climbed up the surprising stable ladder and stuck his head out.

And released his breath in relief. He could see the frames for two other shafts. Regular elevators with doors on every floor, and if he wasn't mistaken, that was a maintenance access panel just over there.

He'd stopped the car in between floors, so they'd have to go up or down a half floor. Easy enough, as the walls had built-in ladders.

He dropped back down.

"Good news," he said with a smile.

Aerith climbed out first, then Cloud followed by Tifa. That way, she'd have a chance to catch Genesis if Cloud dropped him. Shouldn't happen though. They'd used belts and strips from Aerith's dress to strap the two together piggy-back style.

The shaft's built-in ladder was only a step away from the top of the elevator, and the three of them moved smoothly off and up. Once everyone was securely off, Zack dropped back into the car to press the release button – they didn't need maintenance workers or security forces coming to investigate a stall.

Back out to the top of the now-moving elevator then a little jump to get off. He snagged the ladder one-handed as the box rattled on up.

He glanced down to see he was only a couple floors higher than his team. Not bad.

Zack climbed down; they climbed up, and then they all inched along the ledge created by an I‑beam until they'd reached the maintenance hatch. There wasn't a handle on this side, but there was an emergency release (which didn't sound like Shinra at all, but Zack gave a mental shrug. Luck had to be with them sometimes, right?)

He pulled the lever…

The panel opened barely a finger width along the top side.

He had to work to get a grip along the top edge, but a hard pull had the panel swinging open and crashing down against the wall.

It echoed in the enclosed shaft.

"Well," Aerith said, looking at him with wide eyes. "That was dramatic." Zack smiled, because she was wonderful. She hadn't signed on for any of this shit when she'd agreed to become his girlfriend, but she just clenched her strong, little hands and muscled through.

He crossed to the far side of the opening and dipped his head. "You first, m'lady,"

She dimpled. "Thank you, noble sir." He kept one hand on her, but the hatch was low enough she didn't need help climbing out.

Cloud was next, and that was a problem. No way he could fit with Genesis tied to his back.

"You go first," Cloud said after a quick bog to gauge the fit. "Get a good hold on 'im, then Tifa cuts the ropes and you pull him through, yah?"

It should work. Zack climbed out and rolled onto his back. He anchored his feet to either side of the hatch. Cloud pushed one arm through the opening, keeping his shoulder low and his head in the elevator shaft so Zack would have the maximum room. He braced it against the edge, and gave Zack a thumbs up.

Zack reached through and grabbed Genesis under the armpits. The redhead groaned, and Zack thought the First wouldn't be out for much longer. Too bad they couldn't wait for him to come round, so he could help.

Oh well, he thought with a mental shrug. Life.

He told Tifa to start cutting.

Immediately, Zack felt the weight. Even skinny from months of ill-treatment, the ex-SOLDIER weighed an effing _tonne_. Cloud grunted as his armpit was pressed hard into the granite lip, but other than that, he stayed quiet.

Zack kept a steady pull as more and more of Genesis' weight transferred to him. He had them pause a couple times so he could adjust his grip, but there was more of the redhead out of the hole than in when Tifa said she was cutting the final tie. Zack pulled and let himself fall back.

Genesis didn't come through as much as Zack would've liked. Instead of hitting his chest, Genesis face hit Zack's thick bellyguard right above his diaphragm and knocked the air out of him. Genesis gave a clear groan of discomfort.

"My girlfriend likes my chest, so your opinion doesn't count," Zack pointed out to his fellow former-SOLDIER.

Genesis made another small sound; it sounded like he was trying to make words.

"Get 'im off me," Cloud grunted, still a little squished in the opening.

With a grin, Zack rolled and heaved and got the rest of Genesis through.

"He's starting to recover," he said to Aerith who'd hopped out of the way.

"Is that normal?" she asked.

Zack could only shrug. He'd come to all of a sudden, but he'd been in refined mako, not the unholy mix Genesis had been subjected to. The only person who might have an idea was Hojo, and Zack had no intention of asking that madman squat.

He shifted Genesis to the wall, sitting him up and giving his cheek a pat.

Cloud tossed his sword and harness onto the rubberized flooring where they made dull clanking sounds. He followed moments later, grabbing Iron Blade and rolling out of the way in one smooth move. "Genesis is coming round?"

Zack nodded. "Think so." He turned to look at Cloud. He saw Aerith smiling and holding out her hand to Cloud's friend. Tifa's cheeks were flushed when she pulled herself through.

Zack would let her claim exertion if she wanted. She really did seem to be clueless.

Cloud, hand gripping his sheathed sword, looked up the corridor. "Don't think this is an office floor," he said to the group.

Zack stood up and walked to stand next to his friend. Aerith followed.

Instead of the bland beige walls and carpets the office drones enjoyed, the walls here were smooth metal, the floors were a grey rubberized material, and the lights were light blue strips along the floor. It was threateningly industrial, and sickeningly familiar.

There were cracks in the wall paneling and some of the ceiling tiles had come down. This place had been shaken too.

Good. Maybe the place would collapse on top of Hojo.

"Where are we?" Aerith asked hesitantly. She was frowning at the walls, but Zack didn't think it was because of their ugliness. She had one hand slightly raised, as if sensing the air.

There were only two departments that lined their corridors with metal. "Science department or weapons research," he had to answer.

Aerith inhaled sharply and tucked her folded hands beneath her chin. Cloud paused, sword harness only half on. "Back to the shaft?"

Zack stepped to the public elevators and hit the down button. "Nah."

Tifa blinked. "Will that work?"

Zack shrugged. "Don't see why not."

Aerith had retreated back to the elevators. Zack moved to put himself between the corridor and her.

"Could take the stairs," Tifa suggested. She was coaxing Genesis into drinking a small healing potion. It was a good idea. Even if the First choked a little, his survival instincts might bring his hazy mind back into focus.

Zack cut a look towards Cloud who was stretching his back and rotating his shoulders. Tifa followed his gaze.

"I can carry for a bit," she said. "Don't need a navigator now."

Zack laughed. "You'd be surprised."

There was a roar from up the hallway, the skittering of claws, and a shriek of pain from something that sounded close to human.

They'd all turned to look at the noise.

"I'll carry," Tifa said, bending down to pick up Genesis. "Cloud, you can face that."

"Gee, thanks," he said dryly, but he obediently drew Iron Blade.

She had Genesis up on her shoulders fast as a SOLDIER. It looked odd (not that Zack would say that out loud) because Genesis was quite a bit taller than she was - his bare feet bounced below her knees. The redhead groaned, and Zack swore it was in protest at the indignity.

Tifa started moving across dead-end elevator lobby than stopped. "Where's the stairs?"

That had them all looking around the largish space. There were the sliding doors for the two elevators and nothing else. Not even a washroom.

"Aaah," Zack said stupidly. He couldn't actually remember where the stairs were, since he didn't know where _they_ were. This was an internal elevator, and he'd usually used the outside ones because of the view.

"Goat balls," Aerith said. She'd already turned to look up the hall, where the noise of the fight hadn't stopped.

Cloud took a breath, lifted his chin and his sword. "Can't go down. Havta go through."

"Or we can wait for the elevator I called to arrive," Zack pointed out.

Cloud's stance relaxed. "Yah. That, too."

Tifa hadn't put Genesis back down, and Zack supposed it made sense. What if they had to move quickly? "What's the chance that security's been called?" she asked.

"For us, or for whatever's fighting up the hall?" Zack

"Either."

The elevator tinged. Zack turned, Hardedge up and ready, in case Tifa's lack of optimism was rewarded.

A soft-soled shoe at the bottom of a neatly pressed, dark-blue pant leg stepped out of the elevator and brought Tseng with it. The Turk stopped, eyes widening slightly.

"Hey, Tseng!" Zack said cheerily, lowering his sword. "Fancy meeting you here." He smiled as wide as he could.

Tseng took a moment to squeeze the bridge of his nose. Zack figured it was in the hope it that would erase the image of the bunch of them hanging out on a secured floor.

"Zack." Tseng's voice made it sound like he should've known this meeting was inevitable. Given Zack's luck, Tseng probably should've. "Aerith. Ms Lockhart." He nodded at each of the women. "Cloud Strife."

Cloud had shifted so that he could watch both the hall and the Turk. "Tseng," he said back as cool as a Turk. "I remember. You crashed the helicopter on the Modeoheim mission."

For some reason, that cheered Zack right up: Tseng wasn't infallible. He was human the same as the rest of them.

There was a final inhuman shriek from something up the hall. Then a growling roar filled with triumph filled all the spaces. On Tifa's shoulders Genesis squirmed and muttered unintelligibly. Definitely coming round.

Tseng's eyes flicked in that direction, but he stayed where he was. "May I ask how you all got here?" he said politely. "After all, this is a _secured_ floor, and if there's a breach…"

"Explosion in your secret lab made my bar drop into it," Tifa said with an angry glare. "Dropped the whole thing nearly two stories, because _you assholes_ blew up your secret underground reactor!"

Zack winced. He could've fudged it, made it seem like they'd only ever reached the upper floors of the evil lab, but that reactor had been _deep_ in the hole. Only way they could've seen it.

"And that's where you picked up Genesis Rhapsodos?" Tseng's tone was mild.

Okay, so maybe having Genesis along would make it harder to spin it that way…

"Unwilling experiments stick together," Cloud said firmly. His tone was absolute.

"I see." If Tseng had been anyone else, he would've sighed.

"Mind telling me how Wutain terrorists got sixty floors deep under Shinra's main HQ?" Zack asked. He tried to make his tone somewhere between Tseng and Cloud's, but he probably just came across as curious, and he was. He had a theory about that reactor blow out, and he wondered if Tseng would confirm it.

Tseng looked up at the ceiling. He pulled a short, thick cylinder from his pocket and pressed the top. It was the same device he'd used to block eavesdroppers back in Beginner's Hall.

"If the security's working, why'd you come up alone?" Tifa asked.

"The security is working… intermittently," he replied. "For this, it would be better for it to _not_ be working."

"Was it Sephiroth?" Zack asked. Too impatient to wait.

Tseng gave him a long look while Tifa and Aerith made sounds of surprise and shock. Cloud just grunted and continued to watch the corridor.

"Why would you think that?" the Turk asked.

Zack could hardly say it was because he'd seen a couple more black feathers after they'd left Beginner's Hall.

"Because he's the most logical of the three options."

Tseng's head tilted. "The others are…?"

Zack lifted a finger. "Bad design and/or maintenance – always a possibility," he conceded. He lifted a second finger. "Actual terrorists – not very likely at all. So, given recent events, Sephiroth is just as likely as bad design or maintenance." He looked at Tseng.

Tseng didn't confirm anything, just made a neutral sound.

Before Zack could press the Turk for a proper answer, Cloud announced that something was coming towards them. "And it's growling."

The three unencumbered fighters immediately shifted to block whatever the threat was coming at them.

"Containment failure?" Zack said sideway to Tseng. It wasn't actually a question.

"A large one," Tseng confirmed. "Since the Deepground reactor was completed seven years ago, Shinra Tower has been cutting it's connections to the city's reactors as a security measure."

"In case 'Wutai terrorists' actually _did_ manage to blow one up?" Zack asked sarcastically.

Tseng lifted the side of his mouth in a wry smile. "That was never going to happen."

"You tried to set up Tifa's friends to do it," he pointed out.

"Not the time, Zack." He had his gun drawn but not raised.

"You know," Zack said even as he watched the hallway. "Fourth option it was a Turk obeying old man Shinra's order."

"That's not a possibility." Tseng barely looked at him. "Anymore."

Around the curved corridor, a large lion-like creature appeared. It was scarred horribly, and horribly emaciated, and the numeral 'XIII' was branded on its shoulder. It stalked towards them teeth bared in a growl that was so low Zack felt it more than heard it. He raised his sword and Tseng raised his gun.

"Wait!" Aerith called out. She pushed past them before Zack realized what she'd said.

"Aerith!" His hand reached for her, but she was already beyond him.

She waved at him to be quiet, so he tried. His heart was beating so hard and so fast it felt like a snare drum in a marching band.

The creature raised its tail above its head in threat, end glowing like a torch, but it didn't try to bite Aerith when she reached out a hand.

"This child's a friend," she said, and a soft light filled the space where she almost touched it.

Lips relaxed, eyes softened, and that annoying subsonic growl stopped. It blinked as if just realizing where it was.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you," Aerith said as she backed away.

Zack kind of felt like he should be watching Tseng as he observed this new ability of Aerith's. After all, Tseng _was_ a Turk and it was his duty to report on all their surveillance targets, but Zack couldn't move his eyes away from Aerith. It no longer looked like the creature was going to attack, but why had Aerith done – whatever she'd done – for _this_ creature, and not for the dozens they'd encountered in the lab below? What made this one special?

"What the hells is it?" Tifa asked.

"A fascinating question," it replied. "One we have no time for."

"You can talk?" Cloud asked.

"Obviously." The creature narrowed its one eye at them. "There is something coming this way. Something unnatural."

Zack and Cloud immediately lifted their swords back up to the ready. "Do you know what?" Zack asked.

"No," the creature answered, turning to face back down the corridor. "Just that all Hojo's experiments are avoiding it."

"Then that's what we want to do, too." Zack lifted his chin at Tseng. "We need that elevator."

"Allow me," Tseng backed out of the line and pulled a keycard from an inside pocket. He waved it in front of the elevator call buttons and a small light blinked on. "Priority override," he informed them. He'd already pulled his PHS from another pocket and he lifted it to his ear. "I'm on the 66th floor. Come as quickly as you can."

"What pronouns do you prefer?" Cloud asked, giving the creature a sideways glance.

Zack gave a little eyeroll. Trust ex-Honeyguy Cloud to make that a priority.

"You have already decided I am an 'it'."

Cloud shook his head. "If you can talk, you can choose your own pronouns."

The creature – being – tipped its – his? – head to the side. "Interesting distinction."

Cloud shrugged. "Common courtesy."

The tail flicked, possibly in annoyance, possibly in amusement.

"I am male; he and his is acceptable. And you?" he asked with exaggerated politeness.

"How about a name?" Tifa asked pointedly.

Before the lion-guy could answer, screams and wails echoed up the corridor. They seemed to be getting closer. "Heads up," Zack said and got everybody to focus back on the hall.

From behind him, he heard Genesis ask for "a weapon, materia, anything." Though it came out more like "weap'n, m'teria, 'an'thin'."

"How are you with Fire?" Tifa asked,

Zack couldn't help his snort. He wasn't surprised when Genesis replied, "Oh, I can make anything _burn_." The voice was rough from disuse and the tubes they'd stuck down his throat, but it was Genesis's mocking lilt through and through.

They waited as the hall went quiet, and all Zack could think was 'come on, come on, _come on!_ ' He wanted something to happen – the elevator to arrive, the creature to show up – anything.

He hated waiting.

"Hojo called me 'Red'," the lion-guy said out of nowhere.

The lights in the corridor flickered and dimmed. There was a moan, from up ahead. Almost a word, not understandable but Zack _almost_ recognized it. He strained to hear it…

"I can sense it," Aerith said, voice high and stressed. "It's big."

The shadows shifted. Zack squinted, trying to see it….

Was that a… cloak?

It was like one of the huge sunlamps hung under the plate to provide daylight to the ground floor went off in Zack's brain. It actually hurt, and he couldn't control his flinch. He heard Cloud asking if he was okay, but the voice was distant, weak.

When Zack looked up, it wasn't a cloak he'd seen.

"Sephiroth."

"Hello Zack."

The voice was his – that deep baritone – but the tone was wrong. Sephiroth had never purred. At least, not for him.

"You're not real," Zack said. "You're dead!"

"Am I?"

Well, Zack had a hard time arguing that one. It was entirely possible that Sephiroth – like Genesis and Angeal (and him) – had survived well past the announcement of his death.

As if he sensed Zack's dilemma Sephiroth smirked and stepped forwards, his movement like the prowl of a predator.

It was wrong.

"Sephiroth may not be dead, but you're not him." Zack said it with absolute conviction, and he charged, ignoring the calls of the people behind him.

Before he could hit the thing wearing Sephiroth's face, it changed, grew, stretched into something inhuman. Around him the world _twisted_ …

It was the elevator lobby – rubberized flooring and steel – but it wasn't. Wherever they were, it was infinite. The floor stretched out and beyond what Zack could see. Steel pillars rose up to impossible heights. In the middle was the thing he'd seen – the thing that had pretended to be Sephiroth.

It was reptilian but it stood upright and there were tentacles growing where legs should be. There were appendages that could've been malformed shoulders or fleshy wings. It was draconic, but there was a ribcage and a skeletal face.

"Gods-damned fucking _frog balls_!"

He barely heard Tseng's startled, "I beg your pardon?" as the thing's mouth _flipped up_ and it shrieked. A whirlwind built around its body, and its tentacles swept out and around it.

Zack jumped straight up. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tseng, Cloud, and the lion-guy (not going to use Hojo's name for him) duck or roll out of the way.

Two massive Firas flew under his feet and hit the small tornado circling around the thing. It proved two things to Zack. One, Genesis was still good with fire, and two, magic didn't do much damage to the thing when it was surrounded by that wind. The fireballs had made it through, but much smaller and less powerful than they'd gone in.

"Magic resistant, I think," he shouted to the team.

"Can't be Slowed," Cloud added.

Zack felt the air around him harden slightly as Aerith cast high level Barrier on them all. He landed and tucked into a roll, coming up right under one of the thing's fat rubbery tentacles.

Hoping his Sneak Attack-Double Cut combo would work, he swung with Hardedge.

It worked.

The blade sliced into the right tentacle deep and clean. Purple-black ichor dripped out. Where it fell it hissed and bubbled.

He heard gunfire – three quick shots. The tentacle in front of him shifted, shielding the main body mass from the hits.

"Need to take out the tentacles," Tseng said before Zack could.

"What is it?" Tifa shouted, in what she probably hoped was in a tone of curiosity, rather than one of bone-melting fear.

Zack could sympathize with the bone-melting fear.

"No clue!" he shouted back, grunting as he swung again.

"Is this another one of Hojo's experiments?" Tifa angrily called to Tseng. "You guys let him make this?"

"No," Tseng replied. "There's no record of anything like this."

Aerith said. "It's filled with Jenova cells."

"Nonetheless, Hojo's records contain nothing like this," Tseng argued calmly.

The Turk was still firing at the tentacle nearest to Zack – he could clearly see the bullets impact. They created little holes that, like his blade cuts, slowly oozed close. On the far side, he saw Cloud and Red taking on the other one. The other, smaller, tentacles seemed to be for stability only, so Zack ignored those in favour of hitting the ones that could hurt him.

Red landed and growled, "It's an illusion, no matter how solid it feels."

Above him, the thing bent down towards him. It opened its mouth… and squeaked.

"It can be Silenced," Tseng said calmly.

Good to know, Zack thought. He set aside his blade for a moment and wound up for Iron Fist. It landed solidly. The whole tentacle rippled and then drooped as if it had gone numb, but Zack absolutely _hated_ how it felt – like it wanted to swallow his hand and absorb it. A voice whispered "Reunion is not to be feared…"

Zack backed up for a moment to shake out of whatever that was. Something evil and freaky that he wanted no part of.

He looked at the creature again. Aspects of it _did_ kind of look like the thing in the tube at the Nibelheim reactor. It had shoulders but no arms, tentacles instead of legs. And its head was so low on its 'shoulders' that it mimicked the fact that Sephiroth had torn its head off at the reactor.

"I think it _is_ a form of Jenova," he shouted out. "Not sure how that helps, but…" Maybe Tseng knew of some weakness.

Zack went back to swinging his sword until the tentacle fell off. Unlike the blood that had dripped to the floor and bubbled, the thick limb disappeared before it landed proving Red right about the illusionary aspect.

"Shield's down around the body," Tseng reported. There was a pause in the gunfire, so Zack figured the Turk had to be reloading.

"Watch for the purple pools in the floor!" Tifa called. "They froze Tseng."

Alrighty then.

Feeling strong enough for a big hit, Zack used his Power Attack, hoping to stun it so it would be defenseless even after the Silence wore off. Cloud also used one of his strong moves – a swing straight to the ground that flung lines of power at the target that he called Braver. Then Cloud followed it up with slashes across Jenova's torso that almost looked like Octoslash.

It wasn't a move Zack had ever seen his friend use before, and it occurred to him that they were all much stronger now than they'd been at the start of this dungeon dive.

Yay?

Suddenly the ground under his feet sparked and glowed red, and then Zack was flying backwards, feeling like he'd just been hit with a lightning spell. He didn't land well and had to take a moment to get his breath back. A cooling wash of Aerith's Cura made him feel almost as good as he had this morning.

Was it awful that he really _did_ enjoy fighting? Just like Aerith had accused SOLDIERs of on that long ago day?

"It has regrown its tentacles," Tseng announced.

Zack heard the sound of another body being thumped and landing hard.

Somewhere in this infinite other-space, Cloud groaned in pain.

Zack flipped to his feet and ran back into battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd originally thought of "The Girl from Ipanema" for the elevator music (because, c'mon, it's a classic). However, I really don't like that song and didn't want it in my playlist, so I went looking for something to get it out of my head. Did you know there are YouTube channels devoted to elevator and mall music? I didn't know this.
> 
> I felt better not knowing this.
> 
> Anyway, I didn't like any of those songs either, so you get Floyd Cramer's ["Last Dance"](https://youtu.be/JvfG9uFswis) instead.


	21. Finish Her!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh. The title kinda says it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was listening to a history of reggae documentary, and I've decided that Aerith's song for Zack is "My Boy Lollipop" by Millie Small. (<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkP8TTkxgM0>). I mean, read these lyrics:
> 
> My boy Lollipop  
> You make my heart go giddyup  
> You set the world on fire  
> You are my one desire  
> Whoa, my Lollipop

Tifa hated being stuck back here. She could be far more useful up front, fighting that… that _thing_ that had appeared in front of them and warped their world, but Genesis Rhapsodos – who was supposed to be _dead_ – could hardly stand. He certainly couldn't dodge the black pits of magic that swirled over the floor or the sludge that dripped from the unseen roof.

Tifa had never heard of any magic like it. She'd never heard of any creature that could do the things this creature was doing. Except for maybe summons. Summons could create a space outside of reality. It's how she'd tamed her Odin materia – by fighting it in a pocket of unreality – but this wasn't a summon.

Fuck. She hoped this wasn't a summon.

She'd heard the lion-guy saying it was an illusion, but she'd also heard Aerith say it was Jenova. Even before that, Zack had mumbled something about it being Sephiroth, though all Tifa had seen was a figure that looked like Marco. Marco, the weird guy who had a room in Marle's apartment building.

She shook her head to stop the circling thoughts. It didn't matter who or what it was, it was trying to kill them.

Well, it wasn't actively trying to kill the three who'd been at the back of the elevator lobby when the fight had started. The thing never targeted her, Aerith or Rhapsodos with its spells. All they had to do was dodge the dripping acid and the swirling spells.

Which Rhapsodos couldn't do because he was still recovering from being restrained in a tube full of mako for gods-knew how many months.

She had an arm around the former SOLDIER First and shifted the both of them when one of those swirling pools came their way. She cast the occasional Aero spell, but her magic was a pebble next the strength of Rhapsodos' Fira or what Aerith cast. And even _they_ weren't doing much damage to that thing.

It meant all _she_ could do was watch as Cloud, Zack, the lion-man thing, and a _Turk_ fought in her place.

Tseng's gunfire didn't seem to be doing anything but pissing it off. Tifa would enjoy that a lot more if the situation hadn't been so infuriatingly terrifying.

Zack was doing the most damage, of course. Tifa expected nothing less from a SOLDIER First Class – ex- or otherwise.

Cloud wasn't as powerful as Zack, but he was quick and smart. Where Fair would take a hit if it meant getting in a good blow, Cloud would just move out of range and shift his target. Though for speed, neither of them could compare to the lion-man who moved like a blur.

A dark circle appeared in the air above the thing's head.

"Watch out!" Tifa called to Zack who was up there, cutting lines of white energy into the thing's front. But the ball didn't do anything to the SOLDIER. Instead, a beam of black energy shot out at Cloud. It pierced him, pinning him upright. He shuddered and jerked, like a fish caught on a hook.

That was enough of that.

Tifa turned to Rhapsodos. "Can you move on your own?" she asked, demanding a positive answer.

He blinked at her, unsteady on his feet. "Lean me up 'gainst th' pillar," he said. "Gimme support materia since fire isn't havin' much effect.

Tifa grabbed the extra Heal out of the bag, but that was all she had time to dig for. She also gave him her leather bracer with the Lightning materia – he could decide what he wanted to use. Then she took off at a run, already pissed and ready to hit something _really hard_.

She ran at the nearest tentacle and dive-kicked it.

Zack had cut it enough that the force of her blow tore it in two. The separated end coiled through the air like a thrown snake. Then it disappeared. Just like an illusion.

"This one is off!" Zack shouted as if he'd done it, but Tifa was too angry to care.

This whole thing was _fake_. A lie.

"Nearly there," the lion-man replied from the other side.

The monster was a _lie_ , just like Shinra's promises of safety.

They made ads that said they _cared_ , but then they let their "great warrior" kill innocent people….

She could hear her blood pounding. Every muscle felt full, ready for battle.

Tifa couldn't wait for Cloud and the lion-man to take care of their side. A short run and a high jump, and she dive-kicked the second tentacle. Unlike the first one it didn't come off right away.

Well, fuck that, too, she thought.

Another breath, a deeper focus and she spun into an uppercut that had the appendage drooping and falling limp on the ground. A powerful downward slice by Cloud and the tentacle was off.

"It's off." He said it loudly enough for everyone to hear, but he was nodding at her. She nodded back and spun to face the monster's main body. It was punch-punch-spin and kick, and then punch some more. Focus her chi and hit it harder _and harder_ – hard as she could.

Every punch landed with a wet, dull thud, and every hit made the odd flesh ripple and wobble.

Every bit of damage made Tifa feel better. She'd forgotten how exhilarating it was to hit something with all the power she could command. Especially something _that deserved it!_

It was better than exhilarating – it was freeing.

There was so much in her life she could do nothing about – so many things she had no control over – but here, now, she had _all_ the control.

She was hurting the monster in front of them, the one who had dragged them to this weird dream space.

Zack's voice was dim when he called her name. Unimportant when she had this chance to protect the people she held dear and get some payback for all the suffering–

Suddenly, she couldn't move.

She could breathe. She could see and think and feel, but she _couldn't move_.

She tried to get her arm to lift. Nothing.

She tried to wiggle her toes. Nothing.

It was the most frightening thing she'd ever felt.

She couldn't even blink, so when a new tentacle curled high in the air, she saw it coming down towards her. Moving hard enough, and fast enough, to crush her.

Cloud lifted her and swung her away even as Zack jumped up, Hardedge swinging, and forced the tentacle to the side.

And she could move again.

"You okay?" Cloud asked her, one hand out in case she needed help.

"I'm okay." She gulped and swallowed until it was true. Mostly.

"It seems to be casting," Tseng announced. "Back away." The Turk suited action to words, still shooting at it. Rhapsodos cast Fira - two casts, so Tifa figured Aerith had set up her Arcane Ward close to him.

Too bad it didn't work on healing spells, Tifa thought even as she backed around a pillar.

She cast a Blizzara at the thing, hoping it would do more damage than Rhapsodos' fire spells.

It didn't, but it did make the thing shriek in either outrage or pain. It whipped its head around, screaming, and fluttered its… wings, (for lack of a better description). Energy gathered around it; first streaks and then a massive ball that shrunk smaller and smaller….

"Brace yourselves!" Zack called. Tifa saw and felt Barrier going up around all of them.

The energy flashed – a dark, acidic heat – that expanded out into infinity, and changed the whole dream space as it went. Now, the floor seemed like a dark sky cut through with angry red lava instead of the plain grey it had been.

A tentacle pushed through the floor beside her as if it were liquid instead of metal.

Instinctually, Tifa lashed out with a roundhouse kick. "What the hells?!"

"Same tactics as before," Tseng said calmly. "We need to eliminate the tentacles before we can affect the body."

"Great," she muttered. Then she added "Scaley dragon tits," just to prove they had this under control. Just to prove that _she_ was under control.

This time she didn't lose track of what was under her feet. When a dark pool swirled in her direction, she hopped away, using the time to focus herself so she could bring more power to the fight.

"Two down!" Zack yelled.

"One," Cloud responded.

Tifa gritted her teeth – like hell she was losing to Fair. A final kick, and the tentacle in front of her shivered and disappeared. She ran to the next closest one and used the overpowering punch she'd learned from the ex-SOLDIER.

"Two," she announced, trying (and probably failing) not to sound smug.

It went on like that for some time – longer than Tifa had thought any fight _could_ last. Every time she thought they finally had the monster beat it would cast some huge spell. Either more tentacles would appear, or it would heal up.

Several times, it cast a burning red wind that circled around it. It didn't hurt much, but it hurt steadily, eating away at her energy. And when wind finally cleared, the Jenova thing had moved and more tentacles came up from the floor, and the fight would start again.

Over, and over, and over…

Aerith's Barrier helped but it didn't block everything. The sticky black goo that dripped from the ceiling, for one. Some landed on Tifa's leg as she was kicking, and it _burned_. It also felt like something was trying to crawl into her skin. She used her Chakra, and that blocked the worst of it.

Tifa tried to be more careful after that, but there was a lot to keep track of: tentacles, floor whirls, drips, and the creature itself.

By the time the thing screeched its last, Tifa wasn't angry anymore. Instead, she was too tired to be anything other than relieved.

She dripped with sweat and she couldn't draw enough breath to cheer because there was a stitch in her side. One ankle was not quite twisted, but not quite right either. And her hands _ached,_ like they hadn't since her first year of training with Master Zangan.

The creature left as dramatically as it had arrived: with swirls of black cloud and sparks of molten red. When it disappeared they were back in the elevator lobby with its ugly rubber flooring and stark metal walls.

"Boss!" a deep voice called from behind her. She didn't bother to face the newcomer. Instead, she wobbled toward the body that slumped to the floor where the monster had been.

The robed figure didn't move, not even to breathe.

"By th'Goddess, what'm I _wearing?_ " The voice was soft and scratchy from disuse.

"Be grateful you're not still naked," Cloud replied as he knelt beside the body.

"Only because I don' look my best," Rhapsodos said back. "Maybe in a month or two…"

Everybody ignored him and gathered around the fallen figure. Zack was careful not to get too close even though Aerith had reached out a hand to check for Jenova taint. She held it: one second, two…. before shrugging.

Cloud felt for a pulse. After a moment, he shook his head.

"Is that Marco?" she asked.

With a shrug, Cloud pulled back the hood. Tifa took a closer look, but she'd never seen Marco's face. Never spoken to him, really. She only called him Marco because that's what Marle had called him.

"Who's Marco?" Tseng asked. He had an arm around Rhapsodos' waist, but it was obvious the SOLDIER barely needed it anymore.

"Just a guy. Has a room at the motel just up from the bar," Tifa said. "Doesn't say much."

"Actually, he looks like this guy who walked out in front of me the first night I arrived in Sector 7," Zack said, looking down at the body. "But he died – and dissolved."

"So, this _isn't_ Marco?" Tseng asked.

"Does Marco have a tattoo?" Zack asked her.

Tseng interrupted. "Is that significant?"

"Wymer – head of the Neighbourhood Watch," Zack said to Tseng who nodded in recognition. "He said that they'd had a couple of these robed figures collapse in the sector. They all had tattoos."

"Forty-Nine," Cloud said. He'd pulled open a hole in the arm of the robe to reveal the number tattooed in a simple black text.

"That's Marco," Tifa said, stunned. Harmless, crazy Marco had been _that_ _thing_.

Both the Turks made considering sounds. "That's not local work," the bald Turk said. "Even under the plate, they don't do ink so plain."

"How many of these … people have the Neighbourhood Watch spotted?" Tseng asked Zack.

"One more since mine. But that could've been this guy." He nodded at poor Marco. "And two before, so four total, maybe?" Zack's voice was grim.

"There was one in Sector 5. They said he used to be SOLDIER, but that was just a rumour.," Aerith said softly. "For the longest time he did nothing except mutter about reunion."

Zack's head jerked up when Aerith spoke. "He sa– Uh… He said he was SOLDIER?" For some reason, Tifa thought Zack was covering up something, and from the slight narrowing of Tseng's eyes, so did the Turk.

"It was the rumour, but nobody knew for sure." Aerith shrugged. "He used to chase the kids, saying he had to protect them."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Tseng asked. He flicked his eyes to the new Turk who gave a tiny head shake in return.

"Not for a long time, but my mother talked _about_ him a couple weeks ago?" Aerith said uncertainly. "I wasn't paying a lot of attention." She gave Zack a quick look, and Tifa figured her mind had been on her boyfriend. "They chased him out of the sector, because he'd grabbed a couple kids and stranded them in the river."

"Weird way to protect them," Tifa muttered.

Aerith looked at her. "A smogger had activated, so he saved them from that, but then the kids were stranded."

"What's a smogger?" Tifa asked, at the same time Cloud said, "Are those the kids I saved?"

"Scrap parts come back to life," Zack said in a fake-spooky voice, as Aerith nodded confirmation at Cloud.

"Does that really happen?" Tifa looked to Cloud, who nodded.

He looked back at Aerith. "Do we need to burn the body?" His matter-of-fact question drew all eyes to him.

"We need to get it in stasis," the new Turk protested. He already had his PHS out, taking pictures, but Cloud ignored him, waiting for Aerith's guidance.

She drew her hands up under her chin and looked worried. "I don't know," she said softly. "Before that creature showed up, the taint was very strong, but now?" She shrugged. "There's hardly anything."

"Maybe turning into that thing burned it out of him." Cloud stood up, again ignoring all the people staring at him.

"You think that creature was this man?" Tseng asked.

"Think he's the only dead thing here."

"The place in which we fought wasn't real," Rhapsodos added. "It was similar to the space Minerva created for _our_ battle, Zack," he said with a nod.

After a moment, Zack nodded back. "Okay, yeah. But oppressive and unclean."

"Still the same–" the redhead waved a hand "–disconnect from the familiar, though."

"Your theory is that this man took us to a pocket dimension and transformed into a creature 5‑metres tall, and when we killed it, we killed him. Is that your theory?" Tseng's voice was almost completely devoid of expression, but Tifa could tell that he really wanted to mock the whole idea.

Zack stared at him. "It's no more ridiculous than Sephiroth appearing in two places nearly at once and making his 2‑metre‑long sword just fucking appear _from out of nowhere_."

"Yah, that," Tifa said in support.

Rhapsodos took a step forward. "Wait, Sephiroth is _alive?_ "

Zack turned to his fellow First. "Apparently, he killed President Shinra last night."

"That was confidential," Tseng said. Both the SOLDIERs ignored him.

"You don't think it was him." Rhapsodos hadn't looked away from Zack.

Zack shot a look at the Turks. It made Tseng's eyes narrow. "You thought you saw Sephiroth at the start of this fight," Tseng said. "You said his name."

"And a bunch of other stuff," Zack admitted. "You guys didn't see him?"

They all looked at each other. "I only saw a robed figure," Cloud said and everybody nodded except for the new Turk.

"When the doors opened, it was like a ball of black glass," he said. " Opaque. Only saw the occasionally flash of light." Since the bald Turk hadn't been there at the start of the fight, that made sense.

"Why would one of these tattooed men turn into Sephiroth?" the lion-man asked.

"Hojo injected cells from Jenova into Sephiroth to make him what he was, right? World's greatest warrior. He was always trying to duplicate it," Zack said grimly. "Maybe all these guys are more of Hojo's attempts. Maybe it's the Jenova cells that let them warp reality."

Tifa couldn't help but look at Aerith when Zack said that. She knew, thanks to the information they'd shared in the bar before it had collapsed, that Zack had also been injected with Sephiroth's cells. Considering Aerith's reaction to Jenova's taint, they had to be worried what this could mean for them.

"But you said one of them was a SOLDIER," the lion-man said. "Why would Shinra allow their greatest weapons to be used in such a way?" Tifa snorted - along with everyone else who'd escaped Deepground with her.

"Because they don't care about their people," Rhapsodos said bitterly.

"Careful there," Zack growled. "You turned a bunch of men under your command into copies of yourself."

Tifa backed away from the redhead. "What?"

"Also, confidential," Tseng said with a resigned sigh.

"It was wrong of me," Rhapsodos said wearily. "It was arrogant and selfish, and without honour."

Zack stared at the former commander. "Yes, it was."

Maybe he'd looked up to Genesis at one point, the same way he'd looked up to Sephiroth. If Zack had felt hero-worship at one point, there was no remnant of it in his gaze.

"Still say we should burn him," Cloud said. For a moment, Tifa thought he was talking about Genesis. Then her friend nodded down at poor Marco. "He's starting to dissolve and he's leaking purple goo."

Again, the Turks protested, but Aerith gave a small nod.

"Allow me," Rhapsodos said, with a superior smirk. He sent a streak of fire at the body that vaporized it. Both Cloud and the Turk jumped back.

Tseng closed his eyes in a long, pained blink. "I really wish you hadn't done that."

The smile Rhapsodos aimed at the Turk was practically evil. " _My friend, the fates are cruel. There are no dreams, no honor remains._ "

"Aw shit." This time Zack pinched his nose. "That stupid fucking poem."

Rhapsodos sniffed. "You never were the literary type."

"And yet, I somehow managed to refrain from going crazy, killing my subordinates, and betraying my friends," Zack snapped back.

The redhead's smile softened. "Indeed, you did. Lazard was a fool. For of all of us, only you obtained your dream: _you_ truly became a hero."

For some reason that made Zack shuffle and blush.

"Why was it important to burn the body?" the lion-guy asked.

"We have a theory–" Zack started.

"It poisons the planet," Aerith said, hands clasped under her chin.

Zack rubbed his hair – obviously that wasn't how he would've presented it. He waved his hands at Tseng's skeptical look. "Hear us out, he said. "You've fought Hojo's experiments?" Both Turks nodded. "You ever notice ones that bleed purple-black–"

"It's more like it oozes," Aerith corrected. "Very thick."

"We've noticed it," Tseng said. Neither his face nor his voice gave anything away.

"That's the Jenova cells," Zack continued. "And it's like that stuff that was dripping on us during this battle."

"It burns, like poison," Tifa said. "And you can heal it with Esuna." She'd actually used her Chakra, but she wasn't going to tell the Turks about her rare materia.

"Right," Zack nodded. "But unlike poison, when the creature dies, you can see the purple-black stuff dissolving along with the usual green sparkles."

"If it poisons us," Tifa said. "What's it doing to the Lifestream?"

"The Lifestream is a myth," the bald-headed Turk said.

"It is most definitely real," the lion-man said, tail swishing as if dismissing the Turk's ignorance. He looked up at her "If your theory is correct then the planet could be in grave danger."

"It is only a small amount that dissolves?" Tseng asked.

"The effect could be cumulative," the lion-man said. "Layer upon layer building up to a disastrous concentration."

Zack pointed at the lion-man. "What he said!"

For a moment, the group was silent.

There were still howls from the escaped experiments (hopefully fighting each other and not coming their way) but they all stood in the lobby while Tseng evaluated what he'd been told.

Zack practically vibrated with nervous energy, splitting his anxious gaze between the Turk and the hallway. Rhapsodos walked slowly around the lobby keeping one hand on the wall. He did small stretches and bends that he probably hoped nobody noticed. Cloud watched the corridor while he used a piece of Marco's cloak to remove some of the accumulated mess from his sword. Other than that, nobody moved.

" _All that awaits you is a somber morrow; No matter where the winds may blow_ ," Genesis declaimed.

Zack sighed. "Please don't do that."

Finally, Tseng dipped his head. "This discussion is too important to have in an elevator lobby," he said. He lifted his chin at the bald-headed Turk who immediately took out his PHS. "Partner? Roof in ten minutes. Transport."

Tseng went to the call buttons and waved his ID in front of the panel. Once again, the small indicator lit up.

Zack widened his stance and swung his huge sword onto his shoulder. "So, we get a free ride out, and you get…?"

"Information," Tseng smirked. "What else."

"We already told you about the Jenova taint," Aerith said.

Tseng's smiled became more natural when he turned to her. "There is still Deepground," he said. "We are aware that it is a lab under Midgar, of course, but access to it is severely limited. Scientists and workers were recruited permanently. They moved below and were never seen again."

"That's creepy," Zack said.

"Fits though," Cloud didn't sound happy. "Found crates and crates of used military uniforms. They volunteer too?" He twisted his wrist, and the red Ifrit summon flared briefly.

"Deepground started out as a specialized medical unit during the Wutai War," Tseng said.

Zack snapped his fingers. "That's where I recognize it from! It was for injured SOLDIERs."

Tseng nodded. "SOLDIERs were new during the war. No one was sure how injuries would affect them or if standard medical treatments would work."

The elevator pinged its arrival and the Turk held the elevator door. He nodded Aerith forward and she strolled in as if this was any other day under the plate. Tifa shot the Turk a deeply suspicious look before following. Zack went next while Cloud finally sheathed his sword.

Cloud turned to face the being they'd met. "Your choice. Easier getting out with more fighters on your side, though." The lion-man gave an agreeable hum and ambled into the elevator car. Cloud followed favouring his right leg slightly.

It was probably mean of her, but Tifa was secretly relieved that someone else was limping. It meant she wasn't the only one who overextended themselves during the fight – like an amateur.

As the elevator doors slid closed on the crowded car, it creaked unhappily.

"We also need to talk about evacuating Midgar," Zack said with another wide, wide smile.

Tseng, hands folded neatly in front of him, merely blinked. "Lovely."

.o0|0o.

Shelke the Transparent looked the broken body of Azul the Cerulean. He was dead, pierced by falling pipe, and then crushed by the building that was slowly falling apart.

Shelke thought she should be saddened by his death. He had been a colleague, after all, one of only a handful of Tsviets, but had he been a friend? They'd never referred to each other as such.

Besides, it was well known in Deepground that friendship made one vulnerable and weak. Azul had despised weakness. It was possible he had despised her. She was, indisputably, the weakest physically of all the Tsviets.

However, he was dead, and she was not.

Shelke decided that it was okay to feel nothing for Azul's death. She would instead feel concern for her own possible demise.

Shelke should have negative feelings about worrying for herself, because Tsviets shouldn't fear death and she _was_ Tsviet. She recognized the training she had received in order to dedicate her live and death to the mission. She felt the pounding need to FINISH.

But Shelke also knew the mission was irretrievable. She could no longer sense Weiss, whose presence had had been the lodestone of her life, and who was the only Tsviet who's presence would be required at the end of the mission. Without him, life as a Tsviet had no purpose.

There was a voice inside Shelke, telling her that Deepground wasn't her life and shouldn't be her death. It said she wasn't a Tsviet. She almost recognized her voice – no, _his_ voice – deep voice, masculine.

Shelke wanted to be closer to her, even though she knew she shouldn't.

If Shelke left to find that voice, that man, what would happen to Shelke the Transparent?

Probably nothing, Shelke decided. After all, there was essentially no one left to rebuke her or punish her. Most of the attendants and scientists had run when the explosion happened, and the Restrictors who were left had more pressing concerns than one small Tsviet leaving her room.

Shelke decided that finding the person whose voice she heard encouraging her was a better use of her skills than waiting down here to die. She could picture him – no, her – in her mind very clearly. Tall, dark-hair, eyes of deep rose. If Shelke could find her way out of the training facility, she could maybe find her – no, him.

It was confusing, but he'd help. She always wanted to help Shelke – to protect her.

Shelke kept to the edges of the platforms and hallways as she walked. Thankful, for once, that Shelke the Transparent was small and light. Her footsteps didn't jar anything loose, and the floor didn't fall away beneath her feet.

Shelke referred to the architectural drawings she had accessed in one of her synaptic net dives. They hadn't been the target, and she would have been punished if her handlers had found out, but Shelke hadn't cared. At the time, it had been a small rebellion, one of many before she'd earned her place as Shelke the Transparent.

Shelke couldn't remember why she'd resisted being made a Tsviet, but it was in her memory so it might've been true. She did remember that she'd wanted to escape so she could find her – him. No, her, the ginger-haired girl with the glasses and the kind smile, and now, thanks to the reactor explosion, Shelke could go look for him.

Aerial units tried to stop her – _they_ obviously didn't want Shelke the Transparent to leave.

It did not go well for them. Small she might have been, but she was still Tsviet enough to dispatch the weaker units with ease. Shelke replaced her shock spears in their holsters, glad they were always with her.

Thankfully, the Restrictors didn't come. Maybe they, like Azul, had been broken by falling structure? She couldn't rely on that. Shelke was fast, and a Tsviet, but she was still only one and the DG army was hundreds.

Shelke considered her options. There were ramps and stairs, but they looped and turned in odd ways to make Deepground a labyrinth. It would be hard to navigate them undetected. There were the elevators, but she couldn't trust they'd be operating when so much of the facility was without power. However, she could climb the shafts. Not many unenhanced would consider climbing the over 3,000 metres it would take to reach the ground floor.

Decision made, Shelke ran to the nearest elevator. It was the freight one. She almost cut the doors open with her spears, but that would leave too much evidence of her route. She looked for the access panel instead.

It required a screwdriver to remove.

Shelke carried screwdrivers, claiming they were tools, but somehow feeling safer with them in hand when certain scientists were in the room with her.

It took Shelke very little time to remove the panel and hide it.

Inside the shaft, the only light was from her – the blue light emanating from her suit. If a trooper put their head in the hole left by the missing cover, then Shelke would be easily visible.

Unless she was high enough. Then they would need to have scanners and special goggles.

Decision made, Shelke climbed the service ladder quickly. Her rubberized boots made little sound on the metal bars, and her breathing didn't change.

Soon, Shelke thought. Soon she would be free of this place and could find her way back to her – him…. The one she had lost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the delay. Wasn't feeling great the last couple weeks (not COVID; just a cold and work pressure) so instead of sitting down and writing, I watched some British plant sculpture show on Netflix. They made huge insects and sea creatures, and even wearable dresses, all with flowers and grass. I know nothing about flowers, but it was fun. Weird, but fun.


End file.
